Street Rules Apply
by Bundibird
Summary: Harry's twin, Jayme, got the credit for the Dark Lords down fall. As a result, Harry is ignored and shunned. Fed up, Harry runs away at nine years old, joins a bunch of street kids and discovers a few interesting things about himself. DISCONTINUED.
1. City Scratch

DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Really, why we have to bother with these I don't know. EVERYBODY knows that Harry Potter doesn't belong to FanFic writers, and in any case, JK would be the only one ELIGIBLE to sue…and she likes fanfiction! (JK if you are reading this…WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? YOU SHOULD BE WRITING HP7!!!! DON'T KEEP US LOYAL FANS WAITING ANY LONGER THAN NECESSARY!) Hehe…moving on… Also, credit goes to my Sister who came up with the term multimagus, but I came up with element-all.

**At the bottom of this chap is a bit of info about the story and characters. I recommend that you read it first off. It's not necessary, but you might not understand some of the things that are happening.**

Now…on with my new story –

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**_Street Rules Apply – City Scratch_**

Dawn had just broken and Harry Potter surveyed the city below him through his sharp emerald green eyes. He and the rest of his gang were camped on a hill that overlooked the large city. A small grin formed on Harry's lips at the thought of all the stuff he and his team would be…borrowing…that day.

He turned; ready to announce that they would be leaving as soon as everyone was ready, only to come face to face with an angry looking brunette.

"Harry – I can't see _why_ we can't go with you!" Suri snapped at him.

Harry sighed. He had decided the night before that, since it was such a difficult city to scratch, thanks to the sheer size of the city and the large number of policemen, that only the more experienced Nippers would be going. He, Ayden, Sam and Kirsten would go into the city, whilst the rest stayed back on the hill.

Which of course they (the ones staying back) were very irritated about. They hadn't stopped badgering him since the announcement.

Which of course, he was very irritated about.

"Suri," Harry said, exasperated, "we've been through this. None of you lot are experienced enough to do a scratch like this!"

"Yes but," Suri continued, determinately, "how are we ever gonna _learn _to be better Nippers if you never let us practice on anything except outback towns?" (**AN: Do the English use the term 'outback?' Oh well…)**

Harry mock gasped in offence. "Now Suri! You know that's not true! You and the other kiddies get plenty of time to practice! And, I repeat, this is a really difficult and dangerous city to scratch! Besides! You _are_ only ten."

"What does that have to do with anything!? _You_ were only _nine_ when you Ayden started out! And Sam was only eight! _Only _ten…Pft!"

"Yeah but…well…"

"Spit it out Shad."

"Well…you're a girl." Harry replied, barely hiding his grin.

Suri gasped furiously. "I resent that Harry James Potter! You think that just because I'm a girl that I can't Scratch!? Well what about Kirsten then?! _She's_ a girl! I don't see you banning _her_!"

"Uh oh." Ayden said, walking up to the two and turning to Harry, with a well hidden smile on his face. "You told her she couldn't come 'coz she's a girl didn't you."

Harry grinned in response.

Ayden sighed loudly, more to attempt to cover the grin on his own face than from real exasperation. Unfortunately for him, Suri saw the grin and yelled high pitchedly at Ayden.

"You agree with him don't you?! You think that I can't Scratch! Just coz I'm a girl! Well let me tell you something! …"

Suri continued to rant and rage, but none of what she said really sunk in for Harry and Ayden. Not because they were arrogant bastards who didn't listen to anyone, but because Suri regularly lost her temper.

At least once a day, Suri would be found screaming her lungs out at someone. And usually over nothing.

And because her temper was so easy to tip, and because the boys all found her tantrums to be terribly amusing, they regularly provoked her.

"…so fine! Leave! Go into the city with your Elite Team, and I hope you all get caught by the police! Because that will show you that you are _not_ perfect!" And with that, Suri stormed of angrily.

Ayden turned to Harry, still chuckling, and said; "We're ready to go when you are. And Sam said to tell you that he wants a race. As usual. He said you could transform into your horse form, and Kirsten could ride on your back. That way she wouldn't be left behind. He recons he's been building his stamina, so he can run further now."

Harry snorted lightheartedly. "He'll never beat me. Least ways not in a long distance run. He probably recons having Kirst on my back will slow me down. Not likely. But why not? Sure we'll race."

Five minutes later, there was white wolf, a brown and gold cheetah, and a black horse with a girl on his back standing on the hill top.

Dhani, Jesse and the girls had come to watch the race (Suri had recovered from her tantrum), and Dhani was the starter.

At his "Ready…Set…GO!" the three animals (and the girl) set off at an incredible pace.

Sam and Harry drew into the front pretty quickly (Sam in front by a head), leaving Ayden behind, but not by far.

It seemed at first as though Kirsten was slowing Harry down, and that Sam was going to win…but then Sam started slowing, and Harry, who hadn't changed his pace once through the race, galloped on past to win the race.

Kirsten jumped off his back and Harry transformed back into his normal, grinning self.

A panting cheetah transformed into Sam, followed by a laughing wolf that turned into Ayden.

"Don't worry little guy." Harry said, ruffling Sam's hair playfully, "Just know that you are faster than me over short distances."

"Geroff me!" Sam grumbled. "I don't just want to be better than you at short distances…I wanna be better than you in long distance too! And don't call me little guy. I'm only a year younger than you!"

"True, true." Harry admitted. "But I'm still bigger than you!"

"Yeah, whatever. Are we going to scratch this city or not?" Sam growled, trudging off towards the city entrance. Harry, Ayden and Kirsten waved at the rest of the team on the hill, who waved back, and then they set out after Sam.

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_Flashback _

"…_Happy birthday dear Jayme…Happy Birthday to you!"_

_The now nine year old Harry stood out in the hall, listening to the sounds of his twin brother's birthday song, and sighed._

_Even though it was his birthday too, no one seemed to have remembered._

_And it wasn't the fist year either. Harry could never remember a year when both his and Jayme's birthdays had been celebrated._

_It had only ever been Jayme's._

_A tear welled up in his eye, and he glumly brushed it away. He turned, ready to go upstairs to his room, but two people darted out of the party room and came up to him. _

"_Hey kid." Sirius said. "Remus and I've been looking for you."_

_Harry didn't say anything in response, but kept looking at his shoes. It wasn't that he wasn't comfortable with Remus and Sirius, in fact, they were the only people he _did_ feel comfortable with: it was just that he was very down in the dumps._

_Remus and Sirius knelt down next to Harry, and Remus put his arm around Harry's shoulders._

"_Your parents ignored you again?"_

_Harry sniffed. "And everyone else. You two are so far the only ones who remembered about my birthday. And it's not like it's hard to remember! It's on the same day as Jayme's!"_

"_We know kid. We know. But guess what?" Sirius said, his voice rising happily._

"_What?"_

"_Remus and I didn't forget about our favorite godson! We got you a present!"_

_Harry sniffed again. "Really?"_

"_Really really. It's outside! Come on!"_

_Harry trailed after Sirius and Remus, glad that _someone_ had remembered about him._

_When they got outside, Remus produced a long skinny parcel._

_Harry took it, and unwrapped the paper gently. He gasped when a small, child sized broom fell out onto the ground. _

"_It's from both me and Remus." Sirius said. " It's the newest model in kids brooms. The _Crimson Tail 290_. What do you think?"_

"_It's wonderful!" Harry cried, happy for the first time in a long time. "Can I try it out?"_

"_Of course! We didn't buy it to be a shelf broom!"_

_Harry got on the broom and kicked of from the ground. Because it was a kids broom, it was charmed only to go to a height of 3 meters. Harry flew around happily, speeding up to try and catch a bird or a butterfly, then slowing down again._

_His happiness was interrupted however, when Jayme say Harry though the window, and came out to demand that Harry give him the broom._

"_Hey! Harry! Give me that! I want it!"_

_Sirius stepped in gently, well aware of the large number of adults who had followed Jayme out of the house. "Now Jayme, that broom is Harry's. You've got a whole lot of presents inside the house. That one belongs to Harry."_

"_I don't care! I want it! Harry! Come down now and give me that broom!"_

"_But Jayme!" Harry replied, " Sirius is right! You DO have a lot of presents inside! And I know you have at least three brooms! This one belongs to me!"_

"_DAD! Make Harry give me the broom! I want it!"_

"_Come on Harry. Come down and give the broom to Jayme."_

"_James!" Remus said angrily. "That broom is Harry's! Sirius and I bought it for him to have! Not Jayme!"_

"_You may have bought it for Harry, but I am their father and I will decide who gets what! Harry! Come down this instant!"_

"_No! Dad!"_

"_Don't make me come up there!"_

_Harry slowly came down to land on the ground, tears welling up in his eyes again._

"_You always give him everything! Why do you always give him everything?"_

"_You will not talk to me that way young man! You are grounded for a week for your rudeness!"_

"_I never get to go out anyway!" Harry yelled, tears now running freely down his face. "I never get to do anything! You always give Jayme everything!"_

"_THAT IS ENOUGH! Go to your room right now!"_

"_FINE!" Harry screamed, "But don't expect to ever see me again! I HATE YOU!"_

_With that, Harry ran into the house._

_And the only two people who were even slightly worried by what he said, were Sirius and Remus._

_End Flashback _

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"Well I for one think that that was a very successful scratch." Kirsten said happily, her hands full of shopping bags.

"Yep, I would have to agree there Kirst." Sam replied, his hands (and mouth) also full.

Harry, Ayden, Kirsten and Sam had been out almost the whole day and were nearly back at the hill and had managed to scratch quite a number of items, including new clothes for everyone, a basket ball and two footballs, and a large amount of food. Which was being steadily eaten by Sam.

"Sam, if you don't stop eating, we're not gonna have anything to give the rest of the termites."

"Suri would kill you if she ever heard you say that Harry. And we've got heaps of food! Don't worry about us running out."

"I dunno about that little brother." Ayden said. "You have a bottomless pit inside of you. If given enough time you would easily polish off a whole grocery store."

Sam was about to reply to that, but was distracted by Ebony and Jesse running down the hill towards them.

"Harry I'm so sorry! There was nothing I could do! They all just disappeared! Jesse and I turned our backs for a second and they were gone!" Ebony wailed, panic in her eyes.

"What?" Harry asked sharply. "What are you talking about Eb?"

"Suri, Dhani and Anna! They must have gone into the city after you! Suri said something about 'proving she could' or something! Harry we're so sorry!"

Harry sighed angrily. Bloody Suri! She just couldn't accept that there were some jobs for them all, and some only for the older ones. Not only that but she had convinced Anna and Dhani to go with her too!

"And what were you both doing when they slipped away?" Sam asked, anger in his tone.

The two fourteen year olds blushed.

"It doesn't matter Sam." Harry said resignedly. "We'll have to go get them. You two come too. We might as well move camp to the other side of the town since we're going back in."

Ebony and Jesse nodded while Ayden and Kirsten ran back up the hill to pack the rest of the gear up.

Five minutes later, all of their stuff had been shrunk, lightened and put in pockets, and the six of them moved off.

It took them about half an hour to locate the three runaways. And apparently they found them just in time. Harry, Ayden and Sam had to conjure a decoy each to led the police officers who were chasing the tree in a different direction.

Harry turned to Suri, Dhani and Anna with anger smoldering in his eyes.

"What would you have done if those police had caught you?" He asked icily.

Anna, Suri and Dhani averted their gazes from his.

"We didn't realize security was so tight in these cities." Dhani said in a small voice.

Ayden let out a noise of frustration. "That's exactly what we told you! That's why _we_ were the ones to go and not you guys! Because security is really tight in large cities! More police! More security guards! We told you but you ignored us!"

"We're sorry!" Suri replied "We just wanted to prove to you that we _can_ scratch…"

Harry sighed in annoyance. "And what have you three learned from this…adventure?" he asked, deciding to give them a break.

"That there are some cities we cant scratch yet." Anna said, speaking for the first time.

Harry smiled. Trust Anna to bring the peace. "Suri? Dhani? Do you agree?"

"Yes." They replied in unison.

"So next time when I tell you to 'stay put', you'll stay put?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"I'm hungry. Lets go find somewhere nice to sit where we can eat dinner, then we'll go set up camp on the other side of this city." Sam said, his stomach rumbling loudly.

After dinner, the gang headed out. They were all chatting and laughing, the earlier offence forgotten, when they walked past a long alleyway.

Harry stopped when he saw a youngish boy dressed very poorly on the ground and two older boys with hoods on standing over him.

"I don't have any money!" The boy on the ground yelled.

"Sure you don't!" the taller of the boys sneered. "And I'm not about to kick the daylights out of you if you don't tell the truth you bloody street rat!"

Harry pulled his hood over his head. If they were going to hide, then so was he.

"Hey!" He called, ignoring Ayden's muttered 'Heroes complex…' "Leave that kid alone!"

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_**Street Rules Apply - Basic info**_

**A/N: Harry's a bit different in this story than other stories…if you don't like it, fine, but don't bother letting me know through a flame review. I'll just delete your review. Simple solution… don't read the story if you don't like it. Also, there is a fair bit of description before the story actually begins…although I don't recommend it, just skip to the story if you want to.**

**Summary: **Harry's parents didn't die, but his twin, Jayme, got the credit for the Dark Lords down fall. As a result, Harry is ignored and shunned. Fed up, Harry runs away at nine years old, joins a bunch of street kids and discovers a few interesting things about himself.

**Brief character description: **There are five guys in the gang (Harry, Ayden, Sam, Dhani and Jesse) and four girls (Suri, Anna, Ebony and Kirsten). If any more characters come in I'll describe them too. Oh and there's Rust, Harry's pet fox. And don't worry, there'll be the how he met them's for some.

**Harry:** If you don't know who Harry is…what the hell are you doing here? You know…the guy with jet black hair (Well, he has a few random red streaks in his hair, but we'll get to that later), lightning bolt scar, emerald green eyes…he only defeated the most dangerous wizard ever to walk the face of the planet, but ya know… He's 16 in this story btw and his hair is longer than it is in the books/movies, but not too long. Just…I've gone without a haircut for too long long. Like…hot long.

He's the leader of the gang, because he's an awesome combat fighter (like, he can fight with anything…fists, feet, head, stick…etc.) and …ready for the bomb shell? He has total control over his magic, and he's an element-all (No, **not** elemental…element-all. He has control over **all **elements…element-all…get it?) And he's a multimagus. (An animagus times lots…he can change into any animal. Credit for that one goes to my sister, who came up with it. Isn't it a cool term? I recon it's so cool.)

Harry's nickname is Shadow…Shad for short. He discovered he was very good at moving around unseen, like a shadow, so Ayden and Sam decided it would be a good nickname.

**Jayme:** Harry's identical twin (except that he has no red hair and has no scar on his forehead, but one on his cheek.). But he doesn't come into it for quite a while…I don't think he's in this chap…anyway, he's a total prick.

He's been spoilt almost his whole life and can practically get away with MURDER…because he's the cough cough Boy-Who-Lived. His best friend is… (Dare I say it?? I can't believe I'm doing this…I HATE when people use this guy in FanFictions! But I couldn't think of anyone else who'd fit the bill! Aaaargh, here we go…take the plunge Bundi…) Blasie Zabini. (sobbing there…are you happy? I did it! wails and runs off) They both hate anyone who's 'beneath them,' for example, the Weasley's, coz they're poor, but only infront of the kids themselves. They make sure they're the teachers' pets everytime else. Whenever someone complains about the bullying, they are told that they are "just trying to snatch some of the lime light."

**Ayden:** Harry's best friend and Sam's brother. He's 16 too and he and Harry have been best buddies ever since Harry first ran away (Which was 7 years ago). Brown eyes, dark brown hair (Like, almost black) and it's longish. Not too long, just good long. Second in charge, alongside Kirsten. He can do magic too and is an animagus. His form is a giant white wolf.

**Sam:** 15 years old and, as afore mentioned, Ayden's brother. Light brown hair and blue eyes. He's been around from the start. He and Ayden decided to run away after their parents were killed in a car crash (yes, an actual car crash, not an excuse made up by some horrid Aunt) and they were going to be sent to their only living relatives, their grandparents…who HATED them. They decided that life on the streets would be better than life with _them_. And, needless to say, their grandparents didn't make too much of an effort to find them. He can also do magic and is an animagus, and his form is a cheetah.

**Dhani:** (As in Daniel. Pronounced Danny…heaps of ppl say it as d-han-ie…but its not.) He's 10, one of the newer additions to the gang; he's only been with them for 2 years. Short curly/wavy brown hair, hazel eyes. Ran away from an abusive father.

**Jesse:** 14, blond, blue eyes. Arrived four years ago, he was abandoned by his parents and left at an orphanage, but he hated it so he left, bumped into the gang, and joined. (So I love 'Free Willy'…what are ya gonna do?)

**Suri:** 10, been around for 3 years, long curly hair, brunette, VERY quick tempered. Also ran away from an orphanage.

**Anna:** 8, arrived just recently, only a month previous actually (but has already been integrated as part of the family), and youngest of the bunch, blond, light grey/blue eyes. Harry rescued her from a burning house and afterwards had to endure a two-hour lecture from Ayden in regards to Harry's "hero complex." There will be a flash back at some point.

**Ebony:** Black hair, brown eyes, 14 years old. 5th year running as a part of the gang. Her parents died and she didn't want to go to boarding school. She looks after all the younger ones when Kirsten, Ayden, Sam and Harry go out scratching. She and Jesse are dating…well…dating as much as you can as a street kid.

**Kirsten:** Harry's other best friend. (NO, not romantically…at least…not at this point in time…who knows what time may change!) 15 years old, been with Harry, Sam and Ayden since she was 9, that's 6 years. Straight blond hair, blue eyes. Second in charge alongside Ayden. Same kind of story as Harry, mum and step-dad ignored her in favour of their 'new' children, so she left.

**Rust:** As I said before, Harry's fox. Harry adopted him when Rust's mother was run over by a car and Harry saw it. Harry practically thinks of him as a furry son, and is VERY protective of him.

**Other info: Harry and the team regularly 'scratch' cities. 'Scratch' is their term for going into a city and stealing stuff. The gang moves from city to city. They're almost always on the move to prevent being caught by authorities. A "Nipper" is what they call themselves when they're in scratch mode.**

**Appeal for help:** **There are going to be some pranks later on in this story…not telling how/why! But there will be, and I need some help coming up with some. If you have ANY ideas, please tell me. Even if you reckon they're terrible, tell me, I can fill in the gaps! If you want I will mention you!**

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**So, whatcha think?? Review! Review! I've got chapter two typed up, and chapter three half done, so it shouldn't be too long before I update…on the condition that you REVIEW! ;p**

**Cheers,**

**Bundi**


	2. Old Friends and Enemies

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is JKRs, anything you don't is mine. Also, my sis came up with the term 'multimagus.'**

**AN: In this story, you are legally allowed to apparate at 16 but still not allowed to do magic until 17. Why? Because I said so. Also, the binding spell that Harry mentions is a complicated one that he invented. Ayden or Sam say the spell, coz they are the only others in the group who can do magic, and it binds the members of the gang together with invisible ropes. Then, no matter what happens, the gang is stuck together until Harry willingly (as in, he can't be forced or blackmailed into it) says the counter spell. Very useful at times.**

**Happy reading!**

**_Street Rules Apply – Old friends and Enemies_**

_Harry put his hood up over his face. If they were going to hide, then so was he._

"_Hey!" He yelled, "Leave that kid alone!"_

The two hooded figures turned away from their victim to regard Harry and his group. The shorter one turned to the other and said something, causing them both to laugh. The shorter one spoke up first.

"And why would we do that?"

_That voice sounds familiar… _Harry thought suddenly. He brushed the thought away, wanting to get on with the job. Harry started walking towards the two figures, Rust trotting faithfully at his heels, followed by Ayden, Kirsten and Sam (The rest stayed behind…they had learnt when to stay out of things).

"For several reasons." Harry said. "One, because it's unfair to be bullying a kid as small as that one...especially when there are two of you and one of him."

The other two boys started walking towards Harry too,

"Two," Harry continued, still walking, "I am the King of the Streets, therefore, any street kid, is under my protection."

The two parties were close enough to reach out and touch each other.

"And three," Harry closed, coming to a halt directly in front of the two strangers, "If I wanted to, I could kick your both of your sorry little arses, at the same time, single handed, and blindfolded. Not to mention the fact that if I'm the King, these three (He gestured to Sam, Kirsten and Ayden) are the Lords, and they are right behind me."

The taller figure snorted. "Just a little overconfident don't you think? Do you even know who we are?"

"I don't think he does." Said the shorter one in response. "Let's show him shall we? Then the 'King' and his 'Lords' can grovel appropriately. You can go first."

The taller boy stepped forward with a flourish and swept off his hood. "May I introduce…myself." He was a tall, olive skinned, well featured teen, about the same age as Harry and Ayden.

Harry and the others looked blankly at the teen before Kirsten spoke. "Are we suppost to know who you are? Coz we don't."

"You don't know me? How can you not know who- ah well…maybe you'll know my best mate?" He turned to Harry. "Maybe, since he's top dog where he comes from, and you're acting as top dog around here, you could introduce yourself at the same time? What say you?"

"An excellent suggestion…Yes, I think we shall." Harry replied, stepping forward as the shorter boy did.

Harry could vaguely see a pair of greenish eyes from deep inside the other boy hood, locked with his own. As he reached up to grasp the peak of his hood, the other boy did the same.

Together, they swiped off their hoods … And then froze in shock.

There was silence for a few seconds before the olive skinned teen spluttered, "_Potter_? Harry POTTER?"

Harry didn't respond, but stood, mouth open wide, his eyes barely focussing on the person before him.

Jayme Potter.

Harry turned, and ran, Rust following dutifully. Ayden yelled after him, but Harry ignored the call. He barely even saw Ebony and the others as he hurtled through them.

He ran, blindly, knowing that Jayme would go and get their father, and then he, Harry, would be taken away from the streets.

Away from his home.

Away from his family.

And back to _them_.

Harry ran as fast as he could (which was fast) but in his blind panic, payed no attention to where he was going.

Rust barked a warning just in time for Harry to see the wall of a dead end straight ahead of him, but not in time to prevent him colliding with it.

Harry stood up, slightly dazed, and started to retrace his steps. He was going fairly fast again by the time he reached the corner, only to smash straight into Ayden, who had spun around the corner in pursuit.

For the second time in less than a minute, Harry picked himself off the ground, even more dazed than before, and tried to run again, but Ayden was holding him back.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Harry screamed, panicked, "WE NEED TO GET AS FAR AWAY FROM HERE AS POSSIBLE!"

"Harry, the best thing we could do would be to cover our backs with the wall and fight them. If you run you'll run straight into them."

"NO I WON'T! I'LL AVOID THEM! LET ME GO DAMNIT!

"Harry, they've got the area surrounded!"

"WHAT!? HOW THE HELL DID THEY MANAGE THAT!?"

"It doesn't matter! The point is, we're surrounded by them! We only have one choice and that's to fight them!"

"THEY WONT TAKE ME! I WONT LET THEM!"

"Harry we've got to cover our backs! They'll be here in a few moments! They sounded the area and they're closing in!"

"THEY WONT FIND US! THEY DON'T KNOW WHERE WE ARE!

"DAMNIT HARRY, THEY'RE WIZARDS! THEY CAN DO ANYTHING!"

Suddenly Harry reverted back to a normal voice. "No they can't…"He whispered, backing towards the wall. "They can't make me go back with them! They can't make me go back with them… can't make me…"

Harry took a deep calming breath and closed his eyes, focussing his energy. When he re-opened his them, he saw Ayden and everyone looking at him worriedly. None of them, not even Ayden or Sam, who had been with him the longest, had ever seen Harry in such a panicked state before.

Harry smiled lightly. He was still panicked, but at least he was in control now. "It's ok guys. I just got a bit of a fright. I'm back to normal now though." Then, in a suddenly angry tone, a tone that said that he was ready for what was coming but was absolutely furious about it, he said; "Right! Ayden, you're up front with me. Everyone else, you're behind us. Sam, you're in charge of shielding Kirsten and the others. No – Don't argue! But don't forget to shield yourself! That'll put too much pressure on Ayden and me if they knock you out. Ayden, say the binding spell." Then, more to himself, "They won't be able to separate us then."

They stayed like that, Harry and Ayden in the front with Rust, and the others behind, for only a few minutes, before a young looking witch ran past the end of the street, spotted them, an shot a stream of silver and orange sparks into the air.

A few seconds later there were several popping noises, and about 30 witches and wizards stood assembled, staring at the clump of teens at the end of the street.

Or rather, at Harry.

Harry's hair crackled with suppressed anger. His fists clenched tightly at his sides.

"Element of surprise Harry." Ayden whispered, aware of his best friend's wish to inflict immediate bodily harm on those daring to threaten him. "They don't know we can do magic. Keep it that way until the last possible moment."

Harry grunted acknowledgement.

Suddenly, from the group, a red head and a raven haired darted forward. Harry growled deep in his throat.

"Hold it Harry…" Ayden whispered.

"H-Harry?" the red headed woman asked tentatively. "Is that really you?"

"Yes." Was the snapped reply.

The woman faltered slightly. "Wh-why…why did…what d-…where did…you…"

Harry snapped angrily back at the woman who was his mother, furious at her for all the things she had (and hadn't) done when he lived with her and her pathetic husband, furious at being discovered, and most of all, shit scared that he was going to be taken back into their world.

"Why did I leave?" He bit out. "Where did I go? Why did I go? Is that what you want to know?"

"Yes Harry," James said gently, "that's what we'd like to know."

"Let me think…aah yes, here's one; you ignored me almost my whole life. Here's another; You always favoured Jayme over me. Why? Because he was the Boy-Who-Lived. Ever since Halloween, it was 'Jamie! The wonderful Boy-Who-Lived! The saviour of the wizarding world! Oh yes, and there's Harry too, but he's just The Twin. We don't take much notice of him.'" Harry paused. "Did you _ever_ love me?"

"Of course Harry! We loved you with all our-"

"Hearts? Oh sure you did! I mean, the love you had for me was really on show wasn't it! Every one could see how much you loved me! Take the rooms for instance! Jayme's room was always covered in quiddich posters and filled with toys! The lavish double bed topped off with a colourful cover! The carpet thick and soft! And Harry's room? Bare wooden floor boards, accompanied by bare walls, a rickety single bed and duller than dull bedding! Oh yes! I can really see how much you loved me! And don't even get me started on the birthday issues!"

"Harry- it wasn't like-"

"Yes it bloody well was and you know it!"

"Harry we're sorry!"

"Yeah well its too late for that isn't it." Harry spat quietly, his voice laced with fury and menace. "And if you've got nothing better to say, then piss off. I don't want you here."

James breathed a deep breath. "Harry we know we hurt you. And we're sorry. As soon as we realised you were missing we knew we'd done you wrong. Please come back and stay with us again. We love you and miss you. Please give us a second chance?"

Before Harry could reply to that _ridiculous _request, a man with shaggy black hair stepped out of the crowd. "I think you mean as soon as Remus and I noticed Harry was missing. If it wasn't for us, you probably still wouldn't have noticed his absence."

"Black, you're not helping-" James stared, bristling, but he was cut off by Harry.

"Sirius?" Harry asked, barely noticing the fact that James had referred to Sirius as Black.

"Hey Kiddo, how ya doing?" Sirius asked in response, holding in arms out in a gesture that asked for a hug.

There was a pause, and then Harry grinned and said "Well I'm not comin' to you!"

Sirius grinned boyishly back and darted forward to embrace Harry.

Sirius stepped back and cocked his head to the side. "You've grown a bit."

Harry raised an eye brow in response. "Really Sirius, after seven years I would have thought that you'd be able to come up with a better remark than 'you've grown a bit.' Honestly! And Moony always told me that you were intelligent."

Sirius punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Hey! I resent that!" he paused. "We really did miss you though kiddo. Remus and me. We're sorry you left."

"Sirius, what other option did I have? Sure I _could_ have stayed, but it would have hollowed me out! You know it."

"Yeah, I do. Still…we missed you. It's great to see you again."

"Speaking of Moony, where is he?"

"Full moon." Was the quiet response.

"Ah…I see."

James chose this moment to re enter the conversation. "Look Black, I was having a conversation with my _son_ before you rudely interrupted. If you don't mind, we would like to complete it."

Harry snorted. "Actually, no, 'we' wouldn't. _I_ was having quite a nice conversation with _Sirius_, and if _you_ don't mind, I would like to complete it."

Harry turned his back on his father to face Sirius. "Why is he calling you 'Black'?"

"Ah, well…after you…disappeared…Remus and I kind of lost it. We were both yelling at your parents about the way they treated you. The argument kept getting bigger and bigger and it kind of came to a head when Jayme walked in and said he was glad you were gone, because now every one could pay more attention to him and…well…" Sirius trailed off.

"And well…?" Harry prompted, one eyebrow raised in amusement.

"Well…we ah…kind of started yelling at him too. We told him he was a selfish prat and that he was spoiled and…well…a fair bit of other stuff too. Your father told us to get out of his house and to never contact him again. Remus and I left and never turned back."

Harry whistled. "Whoa…so…you three aren't friends anymore…I _never_ thought I'd see the day…"

"If you'd asked me 20 years ago…I'd've said the exact same thing."

"Harry Potter! Is it really you?"

Harry looked around quickly at the new voice. A tall old man with an absurdly long beard was walking towards them.

"Dumbledore…" Harry growled. Dumbledore had been one of the main perpetrators in regards to lavishing Jayme with extraordinary gifts and yet almost completely ignoring Harry. And Harry had not forgotten.

"Sorry I arrived so late, bit of business to clear up before I left."

Harry didn't reply.

Dumbledore drew to a halt in front of Harry, Sirius, Ayden and the others** (A.N: Bet you thought I'd forgotten them!; D)** and reached out to place a hand on Harry's shoulder, but Harry jerked out of the way.

"_Don't _even _think_ of touching me." He snarled ferociously. Dumbledore withdrew his hand as if he'd been bitten.

"Now, Harry…" he said in his ridiculously calm tone. "I know you must be upset, but-"

Again however, Harry cut the other man off. "Look, I think I know what you are going to say…and before you ask me, no I will **not** come back with you to live in your stupid little world filled with pretence, hatred and status. I left it seven years ago, and I have **no** intentions of going back. Ever. No, I'm not finished. Almost every witch or wizard that I have ever met have only been interested in self fortune. Self preservation.

"The only two who were ever any different were Sirius and Remus. Everyone else tried to suck up to people with a high status, in the hopes to better their own. If you didn't have a title, or a lot of money, or a big house with lots of house elves, then you weren't worth knowing.

"The people of the street accepted me and became my friends, not because of some stupid title, or what I had, or what I could do…but because of my personality. They loved me, for me. You people didn't. So why don't you, and your little band of pathetic magic wielders, pick up your skirts and piss off…before I do something you might regret."

At first, Dumbledore didn't move, but stood there with a hurt and saddened expression on his face. Then he turned and walked a few paces, and beckoned Jayme to come to him.

The two of them whispered quietly for a moment, both of them nodding occasionally.

Then Jayme stepped forward, and spoke in a rather pompous tone. "Harry James Potter, I, Jayme Aaron Potter, your twin and defeater of the Dark Lord, command you to return to the magical society, accompanied by a small squadron of aurors, and-"

Harry, Ayden and the others all burst out laughing.

Loudly and hysterically.

"You-" Harry said between shouts of laughter, "think that _laughs_ you _laughs_ can tell me _laughs_ what to _laughs_ do? Just by _laughs_ using your _laughs_ title!? That's the _laughs_ funniest thing _laughs_ I've ever _laughs_ heard! _laughs_"

"You **will **do what I say! I am the Boy-Who-Lived! I am the Chosen One! You **will** show your respect for you superiors! I demand it!"

Suddenly Harry wasn't laughing any more. His face was filled with fury once more as he rose to meet his brother's challenge.

"Oh shut up! Rolls eyes at collective gasp from crowd No, seriously! I have had it with you people! Did you not listen to what I said before!? I don't give a crap about titles! He thinks he can make me do what he wants, just because he's the 'Chosen One!' He can't! It's time you all started thinking for your-selves and stopped taking orders from a sixteen year old prat just because of who he is! He's a spoilt, stuck up bastard, who is too used to getting his own way!"

"I'm going to have to ask you to stop there Harry." Dumbledore said quietly, still in that infuriatingly calm manner. "We cannot have you insulting our Saviour. Even if you are his twin."

Harry scoffed. "I'll do whatever I want, you barmy old codger! Now I will give you one more chance…PISS OFF AND LEAVE US ALONE! Before I make you.

"And I will give _you_ one last chance Harry, before _we_ make _you_. Because you _are_ coming with us, with or without your cooperation. What say you?"

"Get bent."

"Very well." Dumbledore sighed. "You leave me with no other option-"

"Ok, just stop for a second." Sirius interrupted roughly. "Why does Harry need to come back? He doesn't want to, and I fully understand why. You shouldn't force him to do something he's obviously opposed to."

"He's coming with us Black." James Potter said. "And if you stand in the way, I'll move you myself."

"Do it then." Came Sirius' challenge.

As James lifted his wand to point it at Sirius, Harry decided that he'd had enough.

"Stupi – AAARGH!!"

"I am _really_ fed up with you." Harry said, his hand raised lazily in the air and a bolt of continuous lightning flowing between him and his father, who was lying on the ground jerking convulsively as the electricity flowed into him.

Lily cried out and rushed over to her husband, but was afraid to touch him in-case she too was electrocuted.

Harry let his hand fall, and by doing so, cut the lighting off. James stopped convulsing, and sucked in deep ragged breaths while Lily held and soothed him.

Dumbledore, the rest of the congregation at the end of the street and Sirius were deathly silent.

Finally, Dumbledore spoke. "You…you have control over your magic?"

Harry snorted. "Obviously."

There was more silence before Sirius broke it with a loud "WOW!" then he started asking questions. "How long for? When did you learn? HOW did you learn? What can you do? What was that spell I've never seen it before… wait… THAT WAS WANDLESS! You can do wandless magic! _Dumbledore_ can't even do that! This is amazing! I am SO glad you are my Godson!"

Harry grinned at him, then said, "Starting at the top…how long? Since I was nine and a half…When? That'll take too long to explain… How? I taught myself… and –" Harry paused, looked up at the raptly listening wizards at the end of the street, and then spoke quietly so that only Sirius could hear. "And I also taught Sam and Ayden, they're those two, how to control their magic, and what can I do? A lot. I have control over all of my magic, all wandless of course, and I'm an element-all and a multimagus." Seeing Sirius' lost expression he added, "An element-all has control over every single element and a multimagus can turn into any animal he likes."

"Wow…" Sirius whispered before Harry continued,

"And that one I used on my father wasn't a spell, that was my electricity element."

"Would you care to inform us what you are whispering about over there?" some random witch asked.

"No." He said bluntly. "But I will say this one...more…time. Leave now."

"Harry, I'm afraid we cant do-"

"Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you." Harry raised his hand up, and Ayden did the same behind him. Sirius looked uncertain as to what to do, then decided to join Harry and Ayden.

**AN: AAAAAAAAAARGH!!! BRAIN FREEZE!! WHAT TO DO WHAT TO DO!?! I DUNNO WHAT TO WRITE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!! OOH OOH! I KNOW! WAILS NO I DON'T!! CRIES Ooh, wait…I think the brain freeze is melting! Yes! It is! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…it's a wonder what a bit of random typin can do for ya!**

The witches and wizards at the end of the street all raised their wands in response to Harry, Ayden and Sirius' movements. They all believed that they were more than a match for two teenage wizards who could yield a bit of magic, and a lone wizard.

How wrong they were.

During the first few minutes of the 'battle' it became clear that Harry, Ayden and Sirius were in the lead. Although there were only three of them, Harry and Ayden were, unmistakeably powerful, and could do more than 'yield a bit of magic'. Add to that the fact that they had Sirius Black, one of the best Aurors ever, helping them.

**AN: Neither side is trying to kill the other (DUH!), just like, stun, knock out, immobilise…you know.**

There were red jets, yellow jets, pink, purple and blue jets. There were also jets of flame, water and electricity shooting out at random people coming from Harry.

Sam was doing a good job of protecting the rest of the gang (who were having quite a number of spells thrown at them too, despite their lack of involvement), and occasionally he even threw a spell of his own to the fray.

On the other side of the fight, there were witches and wizards dropping like ninepins. If they were hit by one of those lightning bolts, they were pretty much useless (James was still out of action), if they were hit by the fire jets then the best thing they could do was to apparate away to a large body of water…it was apparently the only way the fires could be put out. The victims of the fire jets would return minutes after disapparating, soaking wet and charred looking. The water jets served to knock countless people unconscious, as it would throw them backwards into a wall, very, very hard. And then there were the spells that no one had ever seen before (like the ones that would make a person float around all dreamy like, thus rendering them completely useless), and they were coming hard and fast.

It seemed that Dumbledore's side was fighting a losing battle.

Finally, one of the witches came to her senses, and apparated to the ministry. She quickly explained the situation and called for all available aurors (and any one else who wasn't very busy at the time) to come to their aid.

Unfortunately for Harry, they did.

And, unfortunately for Harry, there were a **lot** of them.

Suddenly, Harry, Ayden and Sirius were faced by, not ten (which was all that was left of the original assembly), but over 100 fully trained and qualified Aurors, and over 150 other witches and wizards.

They opened fire.

And unfortunately, Sam had forgotten Harry's advice to not forget to shield himself too.

With a small cry, he was thrown backwards into the wall by a stunning spell.

After that, the battle started going down hill for the street kids.

Harry, Ayden and Sirius were suddenly faced, not just with the task of getting rid of the pesky witches and wizards, but of protecting the suddenly venerable younger members of the gang.

They were stretched just a little too far.

Despite their best efforts, they all started dropping.

Suri was the first to be hit, followed by Jesse, Ebony, Kirsten and Dhanni.

Then Sirius was hit by a stunner spell.

Anna was the last of the kids to go, leaving only Rust, Harry and Ayden conscious.

Rust had been running around the edges of the wizards, biting at them and making them bunch closer together and creating an easier target for Harry and Ayden.

He had been mostly ignored, and any spell that did come his way he dodged.

Then one time, he didn't dodge fast enough, and was hit in the side by a stunner.

Harry **totally** lost it then.

Every single one of his elements burst forth at one time. The wind picked up to hurricane strength, the ground shook and split down the middle of the large group of witches and wizards, any water main in the area burst, flooding the area in seconds, rain poured down in buckets, lightning ripped from the clouds, and giant fire balls flew around. (**AN: Are there any other elements? If there are, they were also in full force here. Lol.**)

Harry used the wind to pick Rust up and bring him to him, and with one arm held him to his chest protectively.

Although the sudden torrent of elements had stunned Dumbledore and the others, it hadn't defeated them. They continued hurling spells at Harry and Ayden, and finally, one of them found its mark. Ayden grunted as a large red jet hit him squarely in the chest, and he slowly fell sideways to lie unconscious on the ground.

Harry kept fighting by himself for a while, standing protectively in front of what he called his real family, and holding Rust to him.

But gradually, the 90 or so witches and wizards began to over power him.

Spell after spell hit him in the chest, and on the arms and everywhere else, but he did not fall.

He did not fall until a large orange jet of light, cast by Dumbledore, hit him on the chest, and he sank slowly to his knees.

The witches and wizards all decided to use this opportunity to cast a flurry of stunners at Harry, who, under the hail of the spells, fell slowly from his knees to lie unconscious on his side, Rust still cradled in one arm, and with the other arm thrown out to the side in a desperate attempt to protect the rest of his family.

**AN: There. What do ya think? You know what? I think that might be the longest chapter I've ever written in my life! **

**Please review and tell me what you thought! You have NO IDEA how much writers appreciate reviews! (Unless of course you are a writer yourself! Lol)**

**Next chap should be up soon.**

**Thanks heaps! Bundi**


	3. Wild Animals Should Not Be Caged

**Disclaimer**: Harry…Potter…Belongs…To…J…K…R… …Not…To…Me.

**AN: **Voila! Chapter 3 of 'Street Rules Apply!' Remember to review, and enjoy the chap! By the way, when Harry says 'Dumbies,' he's shortened Dumbledore's name. 

I'M SORRY!!!!!! I was on holidays, and I barely had time to even check my email! Let alone type up another chapter!! Please forgive me!!!!!

Now, after that horrendously long delay…Enjoy!!

oOoOoOoO

_**Wild Animals Should Not Be Caged**_

Harry stirred groggily in response to the persistent poking on his arm.

"Go way..." He mumbled, rolling over to snuggle deeper into his pillow. _Pillow?_ He dimly wondered.

"Come on you lazy git! Get up!" Ayden's voice seemed to come from a long way away, and he sounded tired, as though he had only just woken from a long sleep. Harry didn't respond, wanting to stay in the in the warm and comfortable place of sleep he was currently residing in.

"Harry! Wake up! Come on - sleeping like a baby while the rest of us work - how typical of you!"

"What!?" Harry asked indignantly, rolling over and opening his eyes to glare at a grinning Ayden. "That is _such_ a lie. If anything it's the other way around! You are nearly impossible to get up in the mornings!"

Ayden chuckled. "Knew that'd wake you up. Come on. Get up. Take a look at our new lodgings."

Suddenly, the fight in the city came back to Harry, who swore and jumped up frantically.

"Where are we? Is everyone here? Where's Rust? There you are. How long have we been here? When did you wake up? Where's Sirius? Where are those bastards - I'm going to kill them!"

"Calm down Harry!" Ayden interrupted before Harry could go on. "Everyone's here, the bonding spell worked like a charm. I woke up an hour ago. Sam recons we've been here at least a day and a half. The midgets say they haven't seen anyone yet except for this weird little grey thing with huge ears and eyes in a tea towel loin cloth that brought food up for us."

"They didn't eat any did they?"

"Of course not. They're not that stupid. They had the sense to wait for you to scan it."

Harry looked around for the first time. He saw that they were in a large room that had bedding scattered all over the place. Kirsten, Sam and the others were on the other side of the room chatting amongst themselves, a table piled high with foods sitting to one side, untouched. There were windows, but they were set high in the roof, obviously only for letting light in, not for looking out of. Closer to the other end of the room was a reddish haze that stretched from wall to wall, floor to roof.

Harry gulped uncertainly. "Where are we? And where's Sirius?"

"I don't know where Sirius is, but I can venture a guess as to where we are. And you are not going to like it. I think we are being kept at Hogwarts."

Harry paled, but before he could reply, he heard a door open from the other side of the reddish haze and he snapped his head around.

Through the door walked James, Lily and Jayme Potter, followed by Dumbledore and a few other witches and wizards that Harry did not recognise.

Fury filled him, and he flew forwards in a rage, but Ayden grabbed his arms.

"You wont be able to get to them." He said. "That red haze, that's a barrier. And it's immune to any of the spells I know. I've already tested it out."

"And it's immune to the elements too Harry. So I wouldn't bother wasting your energy trying to get through that way." Dumbledore said calmly, again with the annoying twinkle in his eye.

"Where the hell are we?" Harry spat.

"You are at Hogwarts Harry."

Any of the colour that had been left in Harry's face immediately drained from it.

"Let us out. Now." He said in a voice that made even Ayden (and Kirsten and Sam who had come to stand next to Harry and Ayden) take an uncertain step back.

Dumbledore however, was not abashed. "Now Harry, I'm afraid we can't do that. I am sure you are feeling exhausted, you rather exerted yourself the other day. Perhaps you would like to sit down?" (And of course, as soon as Dumbledore said that, Harry realised that he was indeed feeling exhausted, but refused to give the wizened old man the pleasure of seeing him sit down) Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the young man's stubbornness before continuing. "You have missed out on five years of your magical education, and your parents and I feel that you-"

"I don't give a damn what you and those two pathetic excuses for human beings think!" Harry interrupted roughly. "You want me to go to your school? Feel that I won't be able to protect myself in the real world? Feel that I won't be able to make something of my life? Well guess what? That's exactly what I HAVE been doing for the last seven years! And those last seven years of my have been the happiest and most productive of my life thank you very much, so who do you think you are to come in and muck all that up? Now let us go."

"We cannot simply let you go back to the life you were living Harry."

"Why not?" Came the spat response. "I managed fine without you for seven years! As soon as you take your freaking barrier down, me and the rest of my team are out of here. We will go back to where we belong, and you will leave us alone. Is that understood?"

From behind Dumbledore, Jayme scoffed. "I don't think you are in the position to be issuing orders."

Harry bristled. "No body asked you, Brat. Go torture some poor unsuspecting street kid – I've seen how good you are at that! You do realise that this all your fault. If you hadn't taken it upon yourself to beat up that kid then none of this would have happened!"

Jayme thrust forward angrily, an action matched by Harry. "I'll have you know that that little pick-pocketer did not show Blaise and me the respect we deserved!"

"And what respect was that?" Harry yelled back, inches from his twin brother's face, the only thing separating them the reddish haze. "He didn't bow down and kiss your precious toes?"

"He didn't even acknowledge us!" Jayme yelled in response. "He pretended as though we didn't exist!"

"Of course he did! He was a muggle! Your fame isn't as wide spread as you would like it to be you arrogant moron! The muggles don't know your name anymore than the name of any other random they bump into on the street! And because that kid didn't know that he was in the presence of the 'The Great Jayme Potter' you decided to beat him up!? The poor kid must have been about ten for Merlin's sake! And not mentioning the fact that you and that other guy are sixteen, there were two of you!"

"Harry I do believe we are getting slightly off topic." Dumbledore interjected calmly, before the two identical teens could somehow get through his barrier and throttle each other. "What some young street child did to Jayme and Blaise is irrelevant."

"WHAT SOME YOUNG STREET KID DID TO THEM!?" Ayden roared furiously, stepping up to join Harry. "That kid was on the ground crying for mercy while they were kicking him!"

"He deserved it." Jayme spat.

A ball of fire shot from Harry's clenched fists, and his hair sparked blue electricity. "When I get out of here Jayme Potter," He said in a stony calm voice, "I will make sure that you get what _you _deserve. And your parents will be lucky if they have dust left to worship once I'm finished with you."

Harry turned away, ignoring the responses his threat prompted, and strode angrily to where Ebony, Jesse, Dhani, Suri and Anna were sitting, Ayden, Sam and Kirsten following.

Harry looked at the food on the table for a moment, seemingly studying it, before announcing that it was all safe to eat, with the exception of the muffins. Everyone immediately started reaching forwards to pick out the foods they wanted, but leaving the muffins untouched.

Harry reached over Dhanni's head and picked up the plate of muffins. He strode calmly back to the barrier where he asked, almost pleasantly, "Would you care for a muffin Dumbies? Jayme?"

Jayme looked at Harry with an expression that clearly showed that he thought Harry was mental, but Dumbledore replied "No thank you Harry, those are for your friends and you to eat."

"Shame." Harry replied, as a ball of flame leapt up to engulf the plate. "We don't want any either. You see, we don't particularly like spiked muffins."

There was a pause, before James spoke for the first time. "How – How did you know?"

Harry cocked an eyebrow at him. "Oh I'm just full of surprises. For future reference, when delivering our food, we would like it to come without a sedative. Or at least, if you insist on supplying it, have it come on its own. See Dumbies? Just coz I grew up on the streets doesn't mean I have no intelligence." Harry turned around and walked back to the food table, where he helped himself to some mashed potato and gravy.

oOoOoOoO

Harry had just finished his meal when he heard a scuffle outside the door. Dumbledore and the others had long since left, and, thinking it was them returning again, Harry turned around, a scowl planted firmly on his face.

The door opened and Sirius came bursting in, closely followed by another man Harry recognised immediately.

"Remus!"

Remus looked up at Harry and his face split into a huge grin. Sirius was busy locking the door behind him with a series of charms.

"Hey Moony – do me a favour and cast that locking charm – the one that took me hours to undo."

Moony obliged quickly, and Harry asked, "Er…why are you locking the door?"

"Because Dumbledore and the others don't want us to see you." Remus answered easily, completing the charm with a final flick of his wand. "James seems to think we will be a bad influence." As soon as Remus had completed the charm, a bang was heard on the other side of the door, followed by muffled shouts and incantations.

"There," Remus said cheerfully, turning back to Harry. "That should keep them occupied for a while. Wow – you've grown."

Harry snorted and turned to Sirius. "And you always told me he was the intelligent one."

"Yeah well – the last time we saw you; you were a midget weren't you! So you HAVE grown!"

"Put a sock in it Padfoot." Moony said, smiling. "I apologise Harry. It was a fairly obvious comment and only a stupid person would defend saying it." Behind him, Sirius fumed. "It's great to see you again Cub." Remus continued.

Harry smiled. "You too Moony."

Remus gestured behind Harry to where Ayden, Sam and the rest of the gang were standing. "And who are these lovely people? From what I heard from Sirius, the two older boys did quite a nice job at the fight two days ago."

Harry smiled again. "Yeah, that was Ayden and Sam. I taught them how to control their magic." Harry turned around and started pointing out who was who. "That's Ayden and Sam, I met them when I first ran away, we've been a group since and have collected the rest of the little rascals as time went on. That's Kirsten and behind her is Suri – you'll want to watch the temper on that one. Over there is Dhani, Jesse and Anna. And the last one on the right is Ebony. Everyone, this is Padfoot and Moony. Also known as Sirius and Remus."

"Uh huh…" Remus said. "It might take me a while to remember all of your names guys, so I apologise in advance. Now, unfortunately, we must move onto some slightly depressing topics. Harry, Dumbledore, James and Lily are going to try their hardest to ensure that you, Ayden and Sam – they want you too know that they know you can do magic – are separated from Kirsten, Ebony…and everyone else. They are going to make you go to Hogwarts."

Ayden and Sam both muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "like hell they will" and Harry groaned. "I knew you were going to say that. But don't worry; I am not planning on letting them. I point blank refuse to attend Hogwarts, and there is no way in their wildest dreams that I would ever consider leaving this lot. They can't make me."

"Unfortunately Harry, they are not going to give up. But!" Remus quickly continued, for Harry had gotten a flame of fury in his eye, "But, we can bargain with them."

"What do you mean 'bargain?'" Harry asked. "What do we have to bargain?"

Sirius took over. "Harry, why is it exactly that you don't want to go to Hogwarts?"

"There are a few reasons…" Harry began dubiously. "One, there'd be no point. I already know all the stuff. Two, Dumbledore is the headmaster. Three, Jayme's there. Four, it means I'll have to depend on the Potters, because I have no money, and they will be paying for my books and stuff. And five, it means I will have to leave these guys, and they have been my family for the past seven years. Not to mention I refuse to let them try to survive on the streets without my, Ayden's and Sam's protection."

Suri took this as an insult. "I can survive fine on my own thank you very much! I don't need your 'protection!' I can live on the streets fine without you!"

"Suri! You're not helping! And besides! Who was it that led three of you into certain capture by the cops, and would have been caught if it wasn't for Harry, Ayden and Sam?" Kirsten scolded. "That's what I thought." She continued after Suri had adopted an embarrassed expression.

Sirius ignored the interruption. "I can understand those reasons." He conceded. "But there are a few of those things I think we can change."

oOoOoOoOo

It was several hours later that Dumbledore, Lily and James finally managed to break through the locking charms placed on the door to the Room of Requirement that held Harry and the rest of the street kids. When he entered, it was to find Sirius struggling to remember the name of the smallest girl of the group.

"Anne? Annie? 'A'…'A'…I know it starts with 'A'! Give me a second!"

"You've had a whole five minutes Padfoot!" Ayden laughed. The ten people had spent the about ten minuted talking about the 'situation,' and planning how to make it better for everyone. Everyone being Harry and the gang, Sirius and Remus. They had then spent the following few hours getting to know each other, and, as Harry had introduced the two adults as 'Padfoot' and 'Moony,' those were the names everyone called them.

Sirius ignored Ayden's jibe. "'A'… 'A'…ANNA! YES! I remembered!"

"Er, Excuse me?" James interrupted rudely. "Do you mind?"

"Ugh." Remus mumbled. "Now I know where Jayme gets it…"

"What's that Lupin?" James spat.

"Oh nothing." The werewolf said innocently. "Just that I know where Jayme gets his dire need for attention."

"Sirius, Remus." Dumbledore interrupted, before James could blow up. "We specifically asked you not to come in here."

Remus snorted. "More liked ordered us. And we wanted to see how Harry and his family were, seeing as you thought it acceptable to have over 150 ministry wizards and witches attack them."

"His family? His family were not in here. What are you talking about?" Dumbledore asked, seemingly perplexed. The twinkle in his eye told a different tale however.

Dhani spoke up. "Moony means us. We are Harry's family. We have been for the last seven years. And I wish to warn you. No stick waving pompous arse like yourself is going to change that."

Dumbledore's eyebrow twitched. He changed tack. "Harry, I would like to talk to you again about going to Hogwarts. We feel that-"

"Is that the only thing you want me to do? Go to Hogwarts?"

"Yes Harry." Dumbledore said, frowning slightly. Why was he suddenly allowing the concept to be breeched? "All we wish for you and your …friends, Ayden and Sam to do is to go to Hogwarts and get a decent education."

"And you don't want us do anything else? Like, join the Gobstones Club? Or, anything else?"

"Well… there are some other details of this arrangement that we would like you to-"

"Shush!" James interrupted. It seemed to him that Harry was about to cave, and he didn't want to change his decision. A bad idea as it turned out. "Yes Harry. The only thing we want you to do is to go to Hogwarts.

Harry thought for a moment. "Very well then. On one condition Ayden, Sam and I will go to Hogwarts."

"Agreed!" James said. Fool. "So what is your condition?"

Harry smiled a wolfish smile. Once a wizard has given his word, there's no going back on it. And James had just given his word.

"Ayden, Sam and I will go to Hogwarts, on the condition that all of us – and I mean from me right through to Anna – live with Sirius and Remus, and they become our legal guardians."

OoOoOoOoO

**Oops! Jamsie made a booboo! Lol. Well, there is chapter three. Again, sorry for the wait. We depend too much on computers these days…**

**Ok, BELOW IS A POLL! Please take part in it, because I am writing this story for you lot. (Ok, I'm writing it for me too, but I write it so that it's read. And you lot are the readers.) I really don't know what house to put Jayme in! And I need help! The choices are Gryffindor or Slytherin. Now before you vote, remember: His best friend is a Slytherin. His whole family before him has been in Gryffindor. He is a total bastard. If he's in Gryffindor, I can have Harry annoy the shit out of him constantly. If he's in Slytherin there will be more of an excuse for inter-house rivalry.**

**So tell me:**

**WHICH HOUSE SHOULD JAYME POTTER BE IN?**

**GRYFFINDOR or**

**SLYTHERIN**

**Vote now!! (Through a review of course.)**

**Hope you enjoyed!**

**Love Bundi**


	4. Number 12 Grimauld Place

**Disclaimer: No matter how often I write to JKR asking if she can give Harry Potter and all associated things to me, the answer always comes back negative. Drat.**

**AN: Hello all! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate all the feedback you guys gave me! Thanks heaps:) The tally for the poll was about 7 for Gryffindor and about 3 for Slytherin…thank you all again for voting! It helped me out a lot with the decision! **

**I know this chap is shorter than the other three have been…but I'm trying to get another chap up for you lot before I go to Melbourne for my 18th, so sorry about the relative shortness of this chap. Also (I don't know if they will be in this chap or not…probably not…) the Weasley twins in this story area year younger than in the books…coz I really wanted them to be a part of this story. So, when Harry, Ayden, Ron, Hermione, etc are in their 6th year, Fred and George are only in their 7th.**

**Also, in this story, Number 12 Grimauld Place has a whole lot of land attached to the house. I don't care if that's not how it is in the books, because in the books James and Lily are dead and Harry has no twin. See my point? Great! Now, on to chapter four!**

**OoOoOoOoOo**

_**Number 12 Grimauld Place**_

Harry was still smiling as he walked through Sirius' front door carrying his backpack. The look on his father's face had been priceless! Immediately after Harry had stated he would go to Hogwarts on the condition that he and the gang stayed at Sirius', James had tried to back-pedal.

_FLASHBACK_

"_Ayden, Sam and I will go to Hogwarts, on the condition that all of us – and I mean from me right through to Anna – live with Sirius and Remus, and they become our legal guardians."_

"_What?" James cried, shock etched all over his features. Harry barely had the strength to withhold a laugh. "N-no, we meant for you to live with us. With Lily, Jayme and me – not with Black and Lupin! We want you to go to Hogwarts and live with us!"_

"_But James!" Harry reminded him, in a 'surprised' voice. "You said that all you wanted us to do is go to Hogwarts! There was nothing else in the bargain! You gave your word. Therefore, I chose that we all live with Sirius and Remus." He couldn't hold the grin in any longer._

"_B-b-but- Dumbledore! He can't stay with them! We-we're his parents!"_

"_I'm sorry James…" Dumbledore said, an irritated twinkle in his eye. "I did try to warn you. I'm afraid Harry's right. You said all you wanted him to do was go to Hogwarts. Nothing about who he stays with. And a wizard's word is binding."_

_END FLASHBACK_

James had then turned on Sirius, and attempted to throttle him, but Remus stepped in before things got too out of hand.

Dumbledore asked Harry for his word that he, Ayden and Sam would attend Hogwarts, and after finding no loophole or twist in the statement, Harry happily agreed.

They had then been free to go. Sirius made a portkey out of his handkerchief, and then he, Harry (Rust under one arm), Remus, Ayden, Sam, Kirsten, Anna, Suri, Dhani, Jesse and Ebony all felt a tug behind their navels (prompting shrieks of shock from not only the girls) and seconds later had landed, sprawled, on Sirius and Remus' front lawn.

"Gee." Harry now said, looking around the entrance to number 12 Grimauld Place. "You haven't changed much have you?"

He was being sarcastic. The last time Harry had set foot in Sirius' house, he had been about five, and Sirius and Remus had 'baby-sat' him while James, Lily and Jayme were attending a press conference in Italy. Sirius had only recently inherited the house, and was planning on fixing it up as soon as he got the chance.

It appeared he had gotten a chance. Though the outside of the house looked the same as the rest of the houses in the area, so as not to attract unwanted attention, but the inside…that was a different story.

All the walls had been magically altered to look (and feel, as Harry later discovered) like the inside of a log cabin. The floor was covered in a rich, deep, thick carpet that Harry couldn't wait to feel under his bare feet.

From where he was standing, Harry could see the lounge room, where there was a hearty fire cackling away. The over all colour scheme of the house was red and gold. "Once a Gryffindor, always a Gryffindor" as Remus had said to him one Easter when presenting Harry with a huge red and gold chocolate dragon.

The atmosphere the house gave off was one of warmth, comfort and friendliness; very much different from the cold, angry feel it had given off in previous years.

Harry turned to Sirius with an appreciative expression. "Wow. I'm impressed."

Remus snorted. "Well," he said. "I'm glad one of us is. I wanted to put up paintings on the walls, but Sirius wouldn't let me. Seemed to think that they'd get ruined by pranks we were sure to pull on each other."

"Yeah, well I was right wasn't I!" Sirius retorted. "I still haven't managed to get that stain out of the family tree."

"I don't know why you bother trying. It looks much better now than it did without."

"True."

Harry rolled his eyes at the pair of bickering men, before turning and running off up the staircase. "I'm gonna go pick my room!" He called behind him as he went.

Shouts and hurried footsteps following him up the stairs was the response.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Harry finally had his room. He'd had to wrestle Sam for it, but he finally had his room. It wasn't the room he had stayed in the last time he there – he was still certain there was something scary in that wardrobe. It was one of the smaller rooms, but still had heaps of space. His favourite part of the room was the window that overlooked the large green field out the back of the house. If he recalled correctly, that was the sort of surface perfect for playing Quidditch on. And, if he recalled correctly, he was rather good at Quidditch, when Jayme would let him play. And, if he recalled correctly, Quidditch was a lot of fun.

Harry strolled out of his room to see where the others had gotten to. Sam had claimed the room next to his on the right, and Ebony was on his left. Jesse was directly across the hall from Ebony (Harry just _knew_ that they'd done that on purpose…he'd have to keep all ears out at night from now on…) and next to Jesse was Dhani, then Anna and Suri who were sharing a room. Ayden and Kirsten were at the far end of the hall opposite each other.

"I'm going exploring! Who's coming?" Harry called down the hall. A few seconds later, he was strolling down the staircase again with Suri and Anna chatting animatedly to him on his left and everyone else following.

Exploring the house took heaps of time. It didn't take Sam long to lead the group to the kitchen (where he managed to skive some chocolate cake off the house elves who were working there) but it did take him a long while to lead them back to where they started.

Through their travels, they found many things including a large hall (Ebony and Suri were already talking about Christmas decorations), the corridor that Remus and Sirius' rooms were in, and, to Harry, Ayden and Sam's equal euphoria, they found a Quidditch room.

This room had a range of different brooms (leisure brooms, racing brooms, long distance brooms, etc) in it, it also had a chest with the Quidditch balls in it, it had all the things you would need to care for your broom, and it had a range of books about Quidditch.

"Right, that's it." Harry said, his eyes glazed. "Tour's over."

Almost everyone agreed with Harry (Ebony and Jesse excluded…they wanted to continue exploring the house. Yeah right_…_), and they each took a broom and headed outside.

It soon became apparent that everyone apart from Harry, Ayden and Sam were only ever meant to be on the ground.

OoOoOoOoO

The remainder of the holiday passed happily. Harry, Ayden and Sam spent a lot of time playing Quidditch, and they were quite good. The first few days they played against Sirius and Remus, but the two men quickly became tired of being beaten mercilessly by the boys. Although none of the three had been on a broomstick in years, the skills and memories came back as soon as they were in the air.

All twelve of them (including Rust) took a trip to Diagon Alley to buy the boys' school equipment. They got separated a few times; Harry, Ayden and Sam were lost for about half an hour, then suddenly all three of them went sprinting past with huge grins on their faces. Sprinting after them was a well dressed man from one of the shops they had been in earlier…the man had flashing orange and blue hair.

Once the man gave up the chase, Harry, Ayden and Sam returned to the group, and they continued with their shopping, with only a few minor…disruptions along the way.

It seemed like the next day that Harry, Ayden and Sam were packed ready to go to Hogwarts.

Everyone's spirits were a bit low that morning as the large 'family' arrived at Kings Cross Station.

"Don't cry Suri," Ayden was saying once they arrived at the train station. "We'll be back for Christmas!"

"I'm not crying!" Suri screamed, tears streaming down her face. Ayden gave her a sympathetic smile and pulled her into a hug.

"I promise we'll write." Harry said to all of them. Not a smile was to be seen.

A whistle blew, and the three boys turned around and boarded the train.

They waved out the window until the train rounded a corner.

OoOoOoOoOo

"Poor Suri." Ayden sighed as he sat back in his seat. "I didn't realise she was so attached to us."

"She'll be alright." Sam replied, still looking a bit down. "After all…we will be back for Christmas."

Harry said nothing as he looked out the window in the direction the platform had was.

"Cheer up mate." Ayden said bracingly. "We'll be back in no time. And you haven't left all your family behind. Sam and I are here."

Harry turned around and gave a light smile. "Yeah. And I'm glad you are."

OoOoOoOoOo

The boys were down the far end of the train, so they didn't see anyone but the Lunch Lady for the whole day.

"Anything off the trolley dears?" She asked sweetly, then added "Oh! Mr Potter! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there! Here, you can have some of these caldron cakes for free. I thought I saw you down near the other end of the train – visiting some friends are you?"

Harry sighed. He had known this was going to happen. "Yes, you could say that." He replied. "Thank you, we will have those caldron cakes, but I wont let you give them to me for free. How much will I owe you for six?"

The Lunch Lady seemed a bit (ok…a lot) surprised that 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' was being polite to her, and that he was refusing a free treat. But she decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth and handed over the cakes in exchange for the money.

Ayden could tell that Harry was peeved at being mistaken for Jayme, and decided to cheer him up in one of the best ways possible.

The three boys spent the remainder of the train ride planning pranks that they would play on the unsuspecting victims of Hogwarts.

OoOoOoOoOo

**AN: Sorry if it seemed rushed!! But I wanted to get SOMETHING to you all before the weekend since you all reviewed so wonderfully! **

**Please be nice and review again…even though this chapter was terribly short!**

**I have another Poll:**

**Who should be the DADA teacher? James? Sirius? Remus? Sirius and Remus? A new character?**

**Tell me what you think!**

**Hope you enjoyed! Next chap should be up sometime next week.**

**Lots of love, Bundi**


	5. Hogwarts and Sortings

**AN: Hey guys! Sorry again about that really short last chapter…but I wanted to get something to you before I went away. Thank you all so much for the reviews!! I don't plan on making polls at the end of each chap, just on things that I cant decide on. So thank you so much for helping me out! I really appreciate it! The votes for the DADA teacher are currently tied, so if any of you want to vote again, feel free. Its been narrowed down to James and a New Character, so you only have 2 to choose from now! ;p And sorry for the wait! Complications arose, ensued, and were over come. (grins sheepishly)**

**DISCLAIMER: Yeah, yeah. Go on! Rub it in! As much as I would totally LOVE to own all HP characters and settings…I don't. Only the new characters, the plot and any terms you may not recognise. Gosh I hate these things… runs off crying.**

**Thanks again, enjoy this new chapter!**

**OoOoOoOoOo**

_**Hogwarts and Sortings **_

Harry, Ayden and Sam stood in the shadows to the side of the teachers table, out of sight of everyone in the Great Hall, waiting for the first years to be sorted.

The three of them had point blank refused to accompany the 'ickle firsties' across the lake and into the Great Hall, choosing instead to go via the carriages, then discreetly slip away to wait amongst the shadows. The Sorting Hat had sung its song, then McGonagall stepped forward, and begun to read names of a rather long piece of parchment. The people called then proceeded to step up to a three legged stool, have a very old hat placed on their head, wait a few moments then move off to whatever house the Hat shouted.

Finally, after "Zech, Aaron" had been sorted, Dumbledore stood up and silenced the rapidly rising chatter with a cough of his throat. "Before we all begin to fill our rumbling bellies, we have three more students to be sorted. Two of them will be joining sixth year, and one of them will be fifth year. Please welcome them into your house, should they be sorted into it."

Harry, Ayden and Sam pushed off the wall and strode forwards to stand in front of the three legged stool. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see people looking between him and Jayme, who was sitting proudly at the Gryffindor table. Harry snorted. How the slimy git had managed to end up in Gryffindor, Harry could never guess. He'd listened to the sorting hat's description of the four houses and there was none that Jayme fitted into less than Gryffindor. Harry could only suppose that Dumbles had pulled some strings to ensure his Golden Boy was in the Golden House.

Harry could hear people whispering now. He heard one person say "It's Jayme Potter's long lost twin!" Gasps of recognition followed this statement.

Another person whispered, "He looks just like Jayme!"

"Actually," Harry bristled, "I think you'll find that Jayme looks just like me. I'm twelve minutes older."

Behind him, Ayden smirked.

McGonagall cleared her throat, attracting the attention of everyone in the room. "Daniels, Samuel."

Sam walked up to the stool, and allowed McGonagall to place the old hat on his head. It was too big for him, and slipped down over his eyes, coming to rest on the bridge of his nose.

For a long while, nothing happened. Sam just sat there, hat down to his nose, silent. A grin grew on his lips, but still no sound. After about ten minutes people started to fidget. Eventually, Sam let out a bark of laughter. Then nothing happened for a few more minutes. Finally, after what seemed like an age, the Hat opened it's brim wide, and shouted in a slightly harassed voice, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Sam jumped off the stool, a large smile on his face and headed over to the clapping table on the left. "Bye Archimedes!" he called as he went. Almost as soon as he sat down he introduced himself to a pair of identical looking red heads.

McGonagall shook her head slightly, a bewildered expression on her face, before reading out "Daniels, Ayden."

Sending a grin at Harry, Ayden bounced cheerfully up to the stool, and let the hat flop down to his eyes. Much the same then happened as it had with Sam. Nothing. Over a period of about fifteen minutes, Ayden laughed several times, before the hat called out "GRIFFINDOR!" There was no denying it this time. The Hat was definitely frazzled sounding.

"Nice talking to ya Archimedes!" Ayden yelled over his shoulder.

After Ayden had made his way over to the clapping table to sit across from his brother, McGonagall shook her head again, then read "Potter, Harry" off her parchment.

Immediate silence descended over the Hall as Harry casually strolled up and took his place on the stool in front of all of the students. Just before the hat fell over his eyes, Harry saw Sam introducing Ayden and the two red heads to each other.

"_Please,_" said a voice in Harry's ear, "don't harass me like those Daniels' boys' did!"

Harry laughed, before responding to the Hat. "Aw, they're not that bad. Just a little…over excited I think. What was with the Archimedes thing? "

The Hat gave a disgruntled sigh. "Your 'over excited' friend, Sam, seemed to think I needed a name. First he had the audacity to ask wether I was male or female! The nerve! Then he announced that my new name was Archimedes. Archimedes of all things! Admittedly, having a name is a lot nicer than just being called 'Hat.'"

"Yeah, I used to get called 'Boy' all the time by the cops. It was really annoying. I told them my real name, but they refused to use it. I'll never understand those guys…"

"Yes, I would agree. Now, you have had quite an interesting last seven years, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I've been enjoying it. I'm really only here because Dumbledore is sticking his fingers in pies on other peoples window sills."

"Yes, I have had experience of Albus' meddling too. I wanted to place your twin in Slytherin, but he wouldn't let me. Wouldn't have the defeater of Slytherin's heir in Slytherin." Archimedes let out a derisive snort. "Jayme Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Now there's a laugh!"

"I'm glad you agree."

"So you know you're the One then?"

"How could I not? It was a pretty big thing. I still remember it. I tell you, I had nightmares of that bloody Voldemort for years. But I'm glad everyone thinks it's Jayme. Otherwise, I could have ended up like him, and him like me."

"Yes…I would say that you've been spared actually."

"Yeah. I suppose I should be thankful really. Er…what house do you want to put me in? It's just, we've been chatting for a while and I'm sure people are starting to get fidgety."

"Oh sorry, didn't I tell you? I knew as soon as I touched your head. Trust me, you'll fit in there a lot better than your snot nosed twin! It was nice talking to you. It makes a nice change from Albus, that's for sure! Feel free to come and visit me any time if you feel like a chat. Goodbye Harry Potter. GRYFFINDOR!"

Still chucking at the last comment made about Jayme, Harry said goodbye to Archimedes and made his way over to the Gryffindor table.

OoOoOoOoOo

No one clapped for Harry except Ayden and Sam. Everyone had seen the death glare Jayme was sending Harry's way. But Harry wasn't at all fazed.

"Archimedes?" He questioned as soon as he had seated himself next to Sam and across from Ayden. "You couldn't think of anything better than Archimedes?"

Sam levelled a glare at Harry. Ayden tried (unsuccessfully) not to grin. Sam's poor choice in names had prompted many questioning glances in the past. "Archimedes is a very sophisticated name." Sam was saying. "It shows his intelligence."

"You mean it shows his age!" Harry retorted. "And I know if I spent my life sorting students for a living, I certainly wouldn't want to be reminded of how many years I'd been doing it."

"Well I gave him an option! I told him he could be either 'Archimedes' or 'Flafazine.'"

Harry paused, looking at Sam with an expression that clearly said 'you're mad.'

"Well in that case…" Harry said, "I would have chosen Archimedes too."

Sam grinned in a self satisfied way, and then looked impatiently at the empty plates in front of him. "Where the hell is all the food?! Padfoot SO lied when he said we would get well fed here! I'm starving!"

"Well Mr Daniels," Dumbledore said from the front of the room, "perhaps if you would allow me to close the Sorting Ceremony…then perhaps you could get access to the food you are so clearly desperate for." He was smiling a friendly smile, and his eyes sparkled with something one might mistake for amusement, but Harry knew better. _Nice try Dumbles. But you're going to have to work harder than that to get into OUR good books._

"Oh, you were waiting for us?" Sam said in a 'surprised' voice. "You shouldn't have! We aren't going to listen to your speech anyway, so you might as well have said it without us. It'll take a lot more than being 'polite' to us to get into our good books Headmaster. I'd up the anti a little." Apparently he had been thinking along the same lines as Harry.

Several people gasped at Sam's words, but Harry smiled. Sam never had been good at keeping his opinions to himself.

Professor McGonagall went white with fury, and made to tell Sam off for being so disrespectful to the Headmaster, but Dumbledore waved her back into her seat. "Now, now," he said happily. "It's alright. You must be feeling quite hungry, and I know I tend to get a bit waspish when I don't get enough food. So I shall not keep you for much longer. Congratulations to all our new students! I am sure you will be graciously welcomed by other members of your house." Harry could have sworn that Dumbles' gaze flickered briefly over to Harry, Ayden and Sam, but he was not certain. "Now, a few quick notices to be given; as I am sure everybody knows, the Forbidden Forrest is forbidden, so please do not go in there unless accompanied by a teacher. Mr Filch has asked me tell you that there have been several items added to the list of banned objects, if any of you wish to view said list, you will find it in Mr Filch's office. Now! To all here for your fist year at Hogwarts, enjoy. To those here for you last year at Hogwarts, enjoy. To all those in the middle, enjoy."

With his final word, the tables in front of them suddenly erupted with food.

"Finally!" Sam cried (who, true to his word, had not listened to a single word the Headmaster had spoken, choosing instead to balance a fork on his nose), before looking impatiently at Harry. Harry caught the hint, and swept his gaze over the food in front of them. Suddenly, a plate of fried chicken erupted in flames.

"Go ahead." Said Harry, ignoring the gasps of surprise prompted by the burning chicken, and ignoring Ayden's sigh of "Oh…I like fried chicken…"

Sam needed no further prompting. He practically leapt across the table to reach the Shepherd's Pie.

Harry shook his head at Sam's antics, before flicking his wand nonchalantly in the direction of the Head Table. Seemingly of it's own accord, Professor Dumbledore's spaghetti rearranged itself to read: "I thought you would have learnt."

OoOoOoOoOo

**Ok…don't dip the ends of arrows in poison and fire them at me…I know it's a short chapter…but I don't have time to write any more at the moment! I've got another counts quickly three pages physically (hand) written, and another five (at least) mentally written. I promise! But I have a BIG assignment due on Monday, and I HAVE to work on it…otherwise I will be in BIG trouble (from more than one source!) so, I typed up the above pages in a super hurry, and decided to at least post that at least, so that you wouldn't hunt me down and fire me with poison arrows. …hopefully you wont still do that… shakes fearfully.**

**So, I apologise ENOURMOUSLY for the shortness of the past two chapters (this one included) but hope that you will enjoy anyway.**

**Review!!**

**Love Bundi**


	6. Common Room Confrontations

**Disclaimer****: Not mine, so bugger off.**

**AN****: I am so sorry for the wait!!! I've had a heap of stuff due for college! I'm really sorry! But this chapter is longer than the past two, so hopefully that makes up for it:Begs:**

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!! I really appreciate it! It keeps me motivated, and I just love to hear what people think of it so far.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review:D**

**Bundi **

_**Common Room Confrontations**_

"Oh, Harry, let me introduce you to Fred and George Weasley. Fred, George, this is Harry Potter." Ayden said once his plate (and mouth) was full. He gestured to the red haired twins Harry had seen him and Sam talking to earlier.

"Hey." They both said cheerfully. Harry replied the same.

"They seem to fancy themselves as Pranksters." Ayden continued.

Harry's eyes lit up. "Do you now?" He asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. "If you think of yourselves as Pranksters… then you will no doubt know who the Marauders were, yes?"

It was the twins turn for their eyes to light up. "Do we ever! They're our heroes! We worship them!" Fred (at least… Harry thought it was Fred.) exclaimed.

"Oh good." Harry said cheerfully. "Our competition should be decent then. I haven't had a decent pranking war since I was about seven." Harry handed a chicken strip to Rust, who was sitting at his feet.

"Competition?" Fred asked curiously, while glancing under the table wondering why Harry had dropped a piece of chicken under there.

Beside him, George laughed. "Sorry to bust your bubble, but there is no competition against us, mate. We're the best since the Marauders themselves."

"Oh, I highly doubt that." Sam said, smiling.

Fred gasped in mock horror. "George! He doesn't believe us! We shall have to prove him wrong!"

"Is that a challenge?" Ayden questioned, his face alight with the promise of mischief.

"Why, yes, I do believe it is." George said, his face split into a grin identical to his brother's next to him. "Do you accept?"

Harry mock deliberated. "Aw, I dunno guys. What do you think?"

Ayden rolled his eyes at Harry's theatrics. "I say yes. And I know you do too."

"Excellent." Said the twins in unison, before Fred turned to call down the table: "Oi! Lee! Come over here!"

A dark skinned boy about the same age as the twins appeared a few moments later, looking questioningly at Fred. George gestured to Harry, Ayden and Sam.

"It seems these three want to have a pranking war with us. Care to join our forces?"

There was no hesitation before Lee answered affirmative, a wide grin not unlike the twins' splitting across his face. "Did you even need to ask?"

"Good man! Knew we could count on you. Oi, kid. Budge up a little." George said, shuffling sideways to make room for Lee. "Now…Rules?"

The next ten or so minutes was spent discussing the rules, or, more like guidelines, of their soon to be prank war, and finally they came up with five.

Anyone could be hit. Any house, any year, any number…anyone. (Including teachers)

That included the two teams.

They couldn't do anything that could physically hurt someone.

They couldn't do anything that would embarrass any one Hogwarts student too much. (The teachers were excluded from that one.)

No nudity.

"Right!" Lee said cheerfully once they were done. "Now that that's sorted, I recon we should get to know one another a bit better." He turned to Harry, who groaned silently. He could see what was coming. "You and Jayme Potter are twins, yes?"

Harry groaned aloud this time. He knew it… He knew he'd eventually be asked that, it was rather obvious, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant. It made it worse that many people in the surrounding area stopped their own conversations to listen.

"Sorry-" Lee amended, seeing Harry's discomfort and the many new listening ears. "I shouldn't have asked-"

"No, is alright." Harry interrupted. "You're curious. I would be too." Harry sighed. "Yes, biologically Jayme and I are twins. But I haven't really seen him as that for quite a while. We don't exactly see eye to eye."

"Uh-huh." George said thoughtfully. "So that's why he was glaring at you. So, where have you been the last seven years? I remember Mum and Dad talking about your disappearance. They said you ran away?"

More people were listening now, eager to hear about these strange new arrivals. Especially the one with the black hair and scar.

"Yes, I ran away. Its not just Jayme I don't see eye to eye with… I don't get along with any of them. I got fed up, so I left."

"Where did you go?" A girl with bushy hair asked.

Harry shrugged. "I went to the streets. I met Sam and Ayden after a little while, and we became a group. Before too long we began to see each other as family. As time went on we collected more kids with similar pasts to our own until we were a group of nine. We knew pretty much every street kid, but our team was made up of nine."

"But how did you provide for yourselves? How did you get food? And clothes?"

Harry smirked. "We are people of many talents."

"You stole it!?"

Harry widened his eyes innocently. "Did I say that?"

"Where are the other six now?" asked a boy with an Irish accent.

"They're staying with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. That's who Sam, Ayden and I are currently living with when not here."

"Why don't you stay with the Potters?"

Harry turned to glare at the young boy who had asked the question. "Nothing in the world," he growled, "could make me return to the Potters."

OoO

Later that evening, when the desert had been finished and Dumbledore had bade them all goodnight, Harry, Sam, Ayden and Rust followed Fred, George and Lee up countless flights of stairs and down innumerable corridors. By the time they had reached their destination (a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress) the street boys were thoroughly disoriented.

"This is going to take some getting used to…" Ayden said slowly. "So… the Great Hall is… that way?" he asked, gesturing down and to the left.

"No." Lee laughed. "The Great Hall is that way." Lee gestured down, to the left, to the right, right again and diagonally backwards.

Ayden blinked. "No wonder I'm lost. They couldn't have just built this place in straight lines could they?"

George laughed, before saying "Godric's Sword." The lady in the pink dress smiled down at them, before swinging forwards to allow them entrance.

"Welcome," said George, bowing regally, "to our humble home."

OoO

As soon as Harry entered the Common Room, everyone stopped talking.

Whether is was because they thought he was Jayme, or because they knew he was Harry, he didn't know or care.

He was about to lower his head and walk through to where he saw a sign saying 'Sixth Year Boys,' but Sam stepped forward.

"Hi everyone!" He announced cheerfully. "I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Sam, this is my brother, Ayden, this is Harry and this is Harry's fox, Rust. I will be joining you in fifth year, and these two buffoons will be joining you in sixth year. I look forward to getting to know all of you, coz I love meeting new people! We three, four if you include Rust, are fun loving guys and I'm sure we'll all get along famously."

"Well that's good to know." A voice sneered from behind Harry.

Harry and Ayden turned around and Sam rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah. I forgot. You're in this house too. Right well, I amend my previous statement. Maybe we won't get along with **all** of you."

"Yes, I am in this house." Jayme Potter sneered, an angry fire burning in his eyes. "And you three would do well to remember that fact."

"Meaning what, oh High and Mighty One?" Harry questioned coldly.

Jayme turned a cool burning stare onto Harry. "Meaning: whatever I say goes."

Harry raised his eyebrow challengingly. "Is that so? And what if we, say… disagreed… with whatever it is you say?"

"I don't care wether you disagree with me or not. You will do as I say."

Harry's hair began to crackle. "On who's authority?"

"Have you not yet learnt Harry? I **am** the authority around here. Actually…I'm authority pretty much wherever I go. **I** am the chosen one."

Ayden scoffed. "And so modest too."

"Believe whatever you will Jayme." Harry said, attempting valiantly to calm his anger. "But we will not bow down to someone just because of a title they wave about their head. In-case you have forgotten, that's why I left in the first place."

Everyone in the Common Room was watching the exchange with baited breath. Very few people had ever stood up to Jayme Potter. And of those who had, none of them had so openly disputed him. None of them had lasted very much longer in their social circles either.

Fred, George and Lee were standing behind Harry, Sam and Ayden watching the face off with interest. They were liking these new three more and more with each passing minute.

"Look," Jayme spat, "I don't care why you left. I couldn't care less whether you left, stayed or died. I just want to make sure that you are going to do what I say, when I say. I will not allow someone to defy me."

"What exactly was it that you did to receive the title 'The Chosen One?" Sam asked angrily. "Didn't you supposedly defeat some evil guy who thought that everyone except him was scum? Because you sound a lot like that guy to me. The only difference is that his was a self proclaimed title, where-as some fool gave you yours."

There was a collective gasp from the audience. These three were going for a record! First standing up to Jayme, then not backing down, insulting him and finally, comparing him to the very man he was said to have defeated!

"How dare you!" Jayme hissed furiously. He wasn't angry so much about the fact that he had been compared to Lord Voldemort; more that these three infidels were standing up to him. And in-front of a crowd no less. "I really don't know why I told father when I found you. You three deserve to be on the streets! You deserve to live in a mud hole for the rest of your life! You deserve to die!"

Jayme suddenly found himself pressed up against a wall with blazing green eyes inches from his own. There was another collective gasp from the crowd. Add physical confrontation to the list.

"Don't you _dare_ talk about my family like that!" Harry hissed quietly. No one needed to strain to hear him though. There was not a single sound from anyone in the whole Common Room. "They deserve a lot more than you do, you filthy pipe rag!"

"Your family?" Jayme scoffed. "They aren't your family. Your real family abandoned you. You weren't worth our company."

Harry growled deep in his throat. He was dangerously close to ripping his twin's head off his shoulders.

Ayden stepped in, speaking coldly. "Sorry Jaymsie; there are a couple of facts there you got wrong. One, yeah, we are his family. More than you ever were or will be. Two, his _real_ family didn't abandon him; he left them. And finally, its not that he wasn't worth your company. It's that you weren't worth his. Now, if you are going to survive this next year with Harry, Sam and I, then I suggest that you stop acting so high and mighty. Harry's about ready to rip your head off, and once he gets past a certain point, nothing will stop him."

"Is that a threat?"

"No. Merely a warning. So I suggest you back right off. Harry, come on. Let him go."

Harry glared at his twin, then shoved him once into the wall, before stepping off. "Go ahead and insult me as much as you like Brat. But insult my family, and you'll get what's coming to you. I still owe you one for what you did to that street kid." Harry turned on his heel and marched across the room, disappearing up the stairs to his new dorm room, Rust on his heels.

"Sorry about that folks." Sam said happily. "He's a great guy really. Some people," he threw a glance over his shoulder at Jayme, "just bring out the worst in him." He and Ayden then set off after Harry, disappearing up into the sixth year dorms.

OoO

"I really don't know if he's going to live through this year." Harry ranted.

Sam and Ayden were seated on Harry's bed, listening to Harry, who was pacing around the room. Rust was watching his master closely from a spot he'd claimed as his own at the foot of Harry's bed the moment they'd entered the dormitory.

Harry was absolutely furious, and not a little upset. Despite what he had outwardly shown, Jayme's words had cut him deeply. His original family _had_ abandoned him. They _had_ thought him not worthy of their company. His hair was crackling with (badly) suppressed fury, and there was a harsh wind picking up outside.

"If he keeps on like that, I'm not going to be able to stop myself. I'm going to bloody rip his miserable little head off his stupid little shoulders. I'm going to bloody kill him. And thank you very much, but I don't really want to be sent to Azkaban for murder. Thanks for stepping in Ayden, I was right ready to punch his living bloody daylights out."

"That's alright mate. Just try to ignore him. He's a miserable little maggot. Pretend he doesn't exist."

"How can I pretend he doesn't exist if he pulls stunts like that!? I'm not going to let him walk all over us. I'll squish his freaking words right back down his throat. Oh, bloody hell I need to go for a flight. I'm not going to be able to calm down before he comes up here, and then I think he _really_ might need a six foot hole and a coffin."

"Sure, go for it." Sam said. "You haven't been for a flight in a while. It'll help calm you down."

Harry nodded distractedly before opening the window. After a moment's concentration, there was a barely audible 'puff' and where Harry had been standing there was now a magnificent phoenix with feathers so bright the whole room seemed lighter.

"Take as long as you need mate." Ayden said as Harry hopped up onto the window ledge. Harry the phoenix nodded, then took off, powerful wings helping him to glide on the wind currents of fury he had created.

Sam shook his head. "Jayme better watch his back. It's only the first night and Harry nearly killed him."

OoO

Harry returned a little over half an hour later.

"Feeling better?" Sam asked.

"Much, thanks. Flying always makes me feel better. I wish you guys could experience it."

"Nah, I don't mind." Ayden said from the floor where he was sitting, making a fuss over Rust. Harry walked over and joined him, ruffling Rust's ears affectionately. "I mean, it must be pretty cool to be able to fly without the help of any outside forces, but I'm happy my form. Besides, there's always a broomstick."

"Yeah… but its just not the same." Harry said. "You just feel like there's nothing in the world that can get you while you are flying. Like you're in control of the whole world."

"Yeah, but I can go faster as a cheetah." Sam put in.

Harry laughed. "You are such a speed freak. Besides. There are some super speedy birds out there you know. But anyway… what positions will you two go for on the Quidditch team?"

Ayden then knew that Harry was feeling a lot better than he had been an hour previously. Harry loved Quidditch, and even thinking of it cheered him up.

"I think I'll go for Chaser." Ayden said. "It's the position that gets the most action. Not to mention the fact that my hand – eye co-ordination is pretty good."

"Yeah, me too." Sam said. "I would aim for Seeker, but I know you'll get that one, so there's not much point me even trying. Chaser is the next best thing."

"Yeah, I'll be going for Seeker. But don't let that stop you from trying out for it! I might not get it."

"Don't be stupid Harry, of course you will." Ayden said impatiently. "You kicked our asses back and Padfoot and Moony's place. We didn't even know you'd seen the dratted thing until you'd caught it!"

Harry laughed at the memory. "Still, I recon you should go for it Sam. If you miss out then you can go Chaser but be the emergency Seeker."

"What, are you planning on being too sick to play a game?" Sam asked, one eyebrow raised. "Alright, I'll go for it. But I highly doubt anyone but you will get it, and you better bloody not be sick at any stage!"

"Hopefully we can help to pull the Gryffindor team out of the trench they've fallen into. Apparently they haven't won for years. Slytherin is the reigning King of the Quidditch field."

"I bet it has something to do with Jayme being on the team. Apparently Fred and George are great Beaters, but Jayme sucks in his position. I can't believe they made him Seeker. He probably wouldn't be able to catch a house if it flew into him. You'll so be able to bump him off his high horse Harry."

"It's sad really. Him being on the team either means that there was no one better to fill the position or he bought his way on and bumped someone better out."

Rust raised his head and looked at the door, warning Harry, Ayden and Sam that someone was on their way up. Sure enough, a few moments later a boy with red hair just like Fred and George walked in, followed by a slightly pudgy boy, the kid with the Irish accent that Harry recognised from dinner and another boy with dark hair.

Harry smiled at them. "Hey. I'm Harry."

The boy with the red hair smiled back, and said "I'm Ron Weasley. This is Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas."

"These are Sam and Ayden, and this is Rust. Nice to meet you."

"You too. And welcome to Gryffindor by the way. Listen, I just want to say thanks. For standing up to Jayme back there."

Harry looked at him questioningly.

"I know you weren't standing up for any of us or anything, but it's about time someone stood up to him at all. He needs to be brought down a few notches. Normally if anyone stands up to him he goes to Dumbledore and they get a rather stern talking to."

Harry shrugged. "Glad to help. He just pisses me off, thinking that everyone is less important than him. I don't know how you guys have been able to stand him for so long. I would have pushed him off the edge of the Astronomy Tower long before now."

Neville spoke up. "Oh, it's been tried. One of the Slytherin's tried it."

Harry laughed. "Really? Which one? I want to meet this guy!"

"He was expelled."

"Oh. Figures."

"We've been getting mixed reports about the Slytherin's. What are they like?" Sam asked curiously.

Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean plonked themselves down on various beds around the room.

"Er… well… on principle, the Gryffindor's hate the Slytherin's, and vice versa. Well…actually... on principle, everyone hates the Slytherin's and vice versa. To tell the truth, I don't really know where we stand with them anymore. There used to be an all out hate between our two houses, but now it's sort of become just a petty rivalry. For example, it is the greatest dream of the Gryffindor team to beat the Slytherin's. And if – no, _when_ we beat them, they'd die of embarrassment. But that's sort of as far as it goes."

Dean took over. "I suppose it's because Jayme hates us all, and…well… _the enemy of thy enemy is thy friend_ and all that. Don't get me wrong; we don't get along with any of them. We have completely different morals and points of interest and everything, we just don't feel the wish to curse them on sight every time we see them."

"Huh." Replied Harry, thinking. "That Blaise Zabini guy. He's a Slytherin, yeah?"

"Ah, now _he's_ an exception." Seamus said, an angry glint appearing in his eye. "He's one of the Slytherin's we hate. He's Jayme's best friend."

Sam growled. "From what we've seen of him so far, we aren't going to like him either."

"Stupid bigoted prat." Ayden muttered under his breath. Neville raised an eyebrow.

"What exactly did he do? Where did you get the chance to meet him? You haven't seen him before today have you?"

"Unfortunately, we have." Harry sighed. The four boys all looked at him expectantly.

"We'd had a bit of trouble with the cops. They hated us. No matter how hard they tried, they could never catch us." Ayden laughed. "We were on our way back to our camp, but because we'd bumped into the cops earlier, we were taking some back roads. We came across two guys about our age beating up a kid."

"I'm guessing that it was Jayme and Zabini?" Ron asked. Ayden nodded and Ron snorted. "Sounds just like the sort of thing they'd do; beat up a kid half their size."

"Yeah, well," Ayden continued, "Harry told them to leave the kid alone – he has this hero's complex see, he feels he has to save everyone he-"

"Stick to the story Ayde."

"You are no fun Harry. Well anyway, we couldn't see who they were, coz they had hoods on. But we sort of told them to leave the kid alone or deal with us. They opted to deal with us. Once they got close enough, Harry realised who Jayme was, and vice versa. We took off, coz we didn't want Harry to be caught, and just as we suspected, Jayme ran for Daddy. They brought pretty much the whole Ministry and cornered us. They tried to talk Harry into coming with them, he (rightly so) refused, so they attempted to use force."

"When you say 'attempted,' what do you mean by that?" Dean asked, somewhat apprehensively.

Ayden grinned a wolfish grin. "Well… we didn't really feel like going quietly. We managed to knock out, oh, what would you say Sam? Around three quarters?"

"I think you're exaggerating a bit Ayde." Harry said dryly. He didn't want everyone thinking he was some sort of God. They thought that enough about his twin. "First off, we had Sirius."

"Oh, come on Harry, you can't deny that we did a pretty good job defending ourselves. Even without Sirius we would have done pretty damn well. If they hadn't called in the extra aurors we would have cleaned the field."

"Hold on." Ron said incredulously. "How many were there?"

"Er… about 150. Then they called in back up, coz Harry, Sirius, Sam and I managed to get rid of pretty much most of them."

"You three, and one fully trained wizard, managed to flatten a bunch of fully trained witches and wizards?"

Ayden grinned again. "Pretty talented aren't we."

Harry slapped him upside the head. "No wonder you and Sirius get on so well. You're exactly the same. Bloody exhibitionists."

OoO

The seven boys kept chatting for a couple of hours, getting to know each other and rapidly beginning to classify the other as friends.

It was about 9.30 when Rust (who had taken a shine to Ron and Seamus and was being petted and rubbed by them) lifted his head again, signalling the fact that someone was coming up the stairs.

There was only one person it could be, and Ron stopped his tale about the Tri Wizard Tournament that had happened in their fourth year as everyone looked at the door.

Sure enough, a few moments later a black haired teen identical to the one they had been chatting to for the past couple of hours walked into the room.

Looking over, Jayme saw the group of boys all seated around Harry and Ayden's beds, and he sneered. "Looks like you're already collecting yourself a bunch of urchins. Not that I'm surprised. You see Harry, that's the difference between us. I see people who are below me, and I distance myself from them, so as not to become covered in their dirt. You see people who are below you, and you join them, making you just as low as they are."

The air in the room crackled as Harry stood up. Ron's ears were burning red and Seamus, Dean and Neville was looking at the floor.

"If you want your head to stay connected to your shoulders, Brat," Harry said in a false sweet voice that would have rivalled Dolores Umbridge's (if he'd known who she were of course), "then I'd shut your mouth. I have a rather bad temper, and once I've lost it… well… you saw what happened when Dumbles tried to take us."

Uncertainty flashed across Jayme's face for an instant, before disappearing. "Are you threatening me?" He asked icily.

"What are you going to do if I am?"

"I'll tell father and Dumbledore and-"

Harry laughed. His laugh had no warmth in it. "And once you tell them… what'll they do? Expel me? Bring it on, I don't want to be here anyway. Disown me? Been there, done that. You're running on empty Jay, and you know it."

Jayme bristled. "They could have you thrown into Azkaban." He said triumphantly.

Harry opened his eyes innocently wide. "What proof is there that I did anything?"

Jayme gestured to Ron and the others. "I have witnesses."

"Well I won't be saying anything."

"What was that Longbottom? You would stand in the way of justice being served?"

"Actually, that's exactly _why_ I wouldn't say anything. In my opinion, justice being served is you getting a good beating."

Jayme stared incredulously at Neville, Ron, Seamus and Dean, all of whom were wearing stubborn expressions.

Harry smirked triumphantly.

Jayme took a moment to collect himself, before sneering at all of them. "You think _he_ can protect you? _I'm_ the one who defeated the Dark Lord, while _he_ sat there crying for mummy!" (For some reason Sam, Ayden and Harry all smirked even wider when he said this) "I have as many people as I care for at my beck and call, and you can mark my words, they're all a lot more powerful than this guy! My father will be hearing about this."

"Yeah, yeah, that's right. Run to Papa. That's what you always did when we were younger too. And you claim _I_ was the one who sat there and cried for mummy! Go to bed Jayme. Clearly it's past your bed time; your getting cranky."

Jayme stared incredulously at Harry, before turning and storming out of the dormitory and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Harry rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "Such a Drama Queen." He muttered.

OoO

**There you are!! **

**:Shocked: Just on twelve pages!! I'm impressed with myself:Grins:**

**So, whatcha think?? Personally, I'm not too fond of this chapter… I dunno why. I just didn't really enjoy writing it too much. Meh! I'll enjoy the next chap more, I'm sure.**

**Anyway, I apologise to those people who wanted Ron and Hermione to be mindless twats (Well, I haven't introduced Hermione yet, but she wont be either.) who follow Jayme's every whim… I didn't make them that way for a couple of reasons: **

**One, I like them too much! Sure, I'm not as fond of them as I am Sirius/Remus/Harry/etc… but I do love them, and I couldn't bring myself to write them as Jayme lovers.**

**Two, it's just not their personality. They are both good (fictional of course) people, and I just can't see them (even in an AU) gravitating towards someone so obviously mean spirited.**

**By the way… does anyone else think that Jayme sounds a little like Akito from Fruits Basket? Maybe I just do because I've been watching it recently… I also think that Harry seems a bit like Yuki and Haru and Ayden a bit like Shigure. Tell me if you think it's too much. I'm trying to keep everyone in character, so tell me if any are out. (For JK's characters at least. With mine I can do what ever I want! ;p Mwahahaha!)**

**Also, I want to explain why Jayme and Harry call each other by their first names. If they each called the other 'Potter'… it'd just be weird. I mean… it'd be sort of like they're talking to themselves… does that make sense? I hope so… that's also why Ayden and Sam call Jayme 'Jayme'…again, coz it'd be too weird for them to call him 'Potter.' **

**Also, (yes, another one. ;p) when Harry calls Jayme 'Jay' he's not being friendly, he's being rude. It's the same as when he calls Dumbledore 'Dumbles.' It's a sign of disrespect.**

**Well, now that that's over! **

**Thank you all again for all of your reviews! If no one is reading this story, than there's no point me writing it, and I don't know if anyone is reading it unless they review.**

**So please do me the MASSIVE honour of reviewing my story for me!! Thank you! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Next one will hopefully be up a lot sooner than this one was!! ;p**

**Bundi**


	7. It Starts

**Disclaimer: Not mine; go bug someone else about rights, legal crap and suing. And the term 'twitterpated' belongs to Disney. So don't bug me about that either.**

**AN: Sorry for the delay in the updating field… I had a really tough time thinking of what to write for this chapter. I still haven't really got it planned out. My plan is to just write and see how it turns out. Not sure if that's a good idea… but… well, I guess I'll see at the end, hey?**

**I probably won't be able to update for at least 2 weeks, because the holidays start on Friday, and I'm going back home… where the only internet connection is dial up. I will really want to update… but I really WON'T want to spend 20 minutes just getting onto my account. So sorry about that. The same applies to **_**An Caillte Fien**_**, if any of you are reading that. I haven't updated **_**Kestrel**_** in yonks anyway because no one's reading it, but it applies to that too I suppose.**

**:Shocked: I just realised this is chapter seven! I can't believe I've done seven chapters already! I mean, I know I posted chapter one a while back… but it just doesn't feel like I've already written six chapters:Shrugs: Oh well. The more the merrier:D**

**Btw, if you consider the word 'bloody' as a swear word, it's mentioned a few times in this chapter. Just a warning.**

**Enjoy! And don't forget to review!**

_**Chapter Seven It Starts**_

Harry poked it.

It didn't move.

He poked it again.

This time, it grunted.

After poking it a couple more times, only to receive the occasional grunt, Harry gestured to Sam. Carefully, so as not to make any noise, Sam leaned over, picking up a bucket of icy water. With a flick of Harry's wrist, several goldfish materialised in the water.

Harry held up three fingers as Sam got into position, raising the bucket into the air. Harry dropped a finger. Then another finger. Finally, as the last finger dropped, Sam quickly up-ended the bucket – fish and all – over the 'it' in the bed, dropped the bucket, and ran over to Harry's bed, diving underneath it while Harry above him dove under the covers.

"AAAAAAAAAGRH!!!" Ayden bellowed at the top of his lungs. "YOU LITTLE BLOODY TOSSER! YOU BLOODY, BLOODY– _AAAAAGRH_!! What is that!? AARGH! FISH TOO!?!? I'M _SO_ GONNA GET YOU FOR THAT YOU –"

Harry popped his head over the top of his covers, blinking as though having just woken up. "Ayden, what are you yelling about? You – wait… you're all wet. What happened? Wait… is that a fish?"

"Don't you bloody act like you don't know, you stupid little, inky-haired – Oof!" Ayden said angrily, attempting to disentangle himself from his sopping covers. He hit the floor with a thud, his dark hair dripping droplets on the floor.

"Inky-haired?" Harry repeated, attempting valiantly to not join in with Sam's mad, muffled laughs that were issuing from under the bed. "That's not particularly creative. I would have said something a bit more… I dunno. Something a bit more demoralising than 'inky-haired, that's for sure.'"

Ayden had managed to get to his feet, but he was still tangled hopelessly in his sheets. He kept shooting death glares at Harry as he tried to simultaneously extract his legs from his wet sheets, and snap an answer back at Harry. "You bloody well try to come with something more insulting than that when you've just been jolted from a deep sleep!"

"What are you talking about Ayde?" Harry asked innocently, feigning a yawn. "I _have_ only just woken up. _You_ woke me up with all your mad shouting. Besides… how _did_ you get all wet?"

Ayden was nearly free of the sheets, and shook his ankle free of one final, twisting loop to stand glaring heatedly at Harry. "Don't you play innocent with me. I have lived every day of the last seven years of my life with you; don't think I don't know your innocent face from your 'innocent' face."

Harry grinned, unrepentant. "Ok. I admit it. I had an accomplice though." He hoisted up the sheet that had been dangling over the side of his bed and obscuring Sam from view.

Sam glared up at Harry. "Thanks. Now he's gonna want to get me back for it."

"Damn straight kid! You two are gonna find yourself sorely pranked at some stage today." Ayden growled, grabbing his wand and conjuring a towel, with which he started to dry off his hair. "And it will be with something a lot better than a bucket of water and fish, I can assure you!"

"Aw, give us a break Ayde." Harry pouted. "After all, you said yourself that it's hard to come up with anything decent in the morning! Besides; basic it may have been, but it still worked a treat."

Ayden glared.

"Er…" came Neville's slightly timid voice. "Is this normal behaviour… or should we be worried?"

Harry, Ayden and Sam all looked up to see Neville, Ron, Seamus and Dean looking perplexedly at them. "Oh yeah," Sam assured them cheerfully, "Ayden can have a bit of difficulty getting up in the mornings, so we have to help him along a bit."

"Will you lot shut the bloody hell up?" Jayme grumbled loudly from behind his curtain. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"But dear brother!" Harry chirped, bouncing over and pulling the curtain back quickly. Jayme yelped loudly and pulled his covers over his head in an attempt to block the sunlight. Harry sat on his twin and attempted to remove the covers. "If you don't get up, you'll be late for class! It's already a quarter to eight!"

"Get off me! Let me sleep! They don't care if I'm late!"

Ayden shot a glance at Sam. Harry had that amused glint in his eye that he got just before he pulled a really big prank. The two brothers edged closer together. Safety in numbers.

Meanwhile, Harry was still attempting to wrest his twin from bed. "But brother dearest, _I_ care if you are late! You won't get as much education if you're late than if you're on time! And goodness knows, you need as much education as you can get."

"GET OFF! NOW!"

"Jayme dearest, I have to warn you," Harry said in a 'caring' voice. "If you don't get up… you will regret it."

"BUGGER _OFF_!"

Harry shrugged. "Mk. But don't say later that I didn't warn you." Harry bounced cheerfully off the bed, then waved his wand (he didn't actually need his wand; he was just pretending to use it to prevent revealing his element-all abilities to the other boys present) over the lump under the covers that was Jayme's head. Within moments, what looked like a mini storm cloud – complete with lightning – had gathered there, and it began to rain – torrentially – on Jayme's head.

Harry strolled back over to his own bed, ignoring Jayme's furious cries as he leapt out of bed and attempted to get out from under the rain cloud, only to have it follow him, and ignoring the howls of laugher coming from Sam and Ayden, and the badly suppressed sniggers from the other four boys. He grabbed his school robes and his towel, heading into the bathroom.

"I think," he said, pausing in the doorway with a big smile on his face, "that I might enjoy sharing a dormitory with you Jayme."

With that, he disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Jayme howling furiously at the bathroom door.

OoO

Fifteen minutes later, when Harry exited the bathroom, there was no one else in the dormitory. Shrugging, he headed downstairs, figuring that Jayme had gone to fetch Dumbledore in a (fruitless) attempt to banish the storm cloud, and that Sam, Ayden and the other sixth year boys would be waiting for him in the Common Room.

Harry snorted. That rain cloud wouldn't go away until Harry willed it away… and that wasn't going to happen until Jayme asked politely. It was time someone taught that brat a bit of humility.

Sure enough, as he rounded the last bend in the spiral stair case, Harry caught sight of Sam, Ayden, Ron, Seamus, Neville and Dean sitting in a corner by the portrait hole.

Rust was again being rubbed and fussed over by Ron and Seamus. He jumped up and trotted over to Harry as he saw him approaching.

"I thought you'd forgotten all about me, Rust!" Harry joked, bending down and ruffling Rust's fur affectionately. "Thought you'd decided to nick off with Ron and Seamus!"

Rust let out an offended bark and looked at Harry with an expression that clearly read, _as if I would ever do that, you dolt._ Harry laughed, picking him up easily. "Well that's certainly good to know!" He said, smiling.

"Harry, Ron and I are about to pass out with hunger. Can we stop talking to animals and get a move on? I'm sure you don't really want to carry my unconscious form down to the Great Hall on the very first day of classes." Sam whined pitifully from the corner. To add extra effect to what he was saying, he grasped his stomach and rolled dramatically on the floor. (AN: Just imagine Gollum when he's tied to the end of Sam's rope in the second Lord of the Rings movie!)

"Ugh!" Ayden muttered. "I'm surrounded by Drama Queens."

Harry laughed again. "Alright then, let's go. Before Sam and Ron really do pass out."

Still chuckling at Sam's antics, the group of them headed out the door.

OoO

Everyone received their timetables at breakfast (Except for Jayme, who was suspiciously absent) and Harry and Ayden compared their subjects to Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean's.

It turned out they were all taking the same subjects. They had Herbology and first thing that morning, followed by double Potions after their morning break, and Defence Against the Dark arts after lunch. Charms, Astronomy, Transfiguration and Care of Magical Creatures were the other subjects they were taking.

"Hey, I just realised," Ron said thoughtfully through a mouthful of scrambled eggs. "Dumbledore didn't introduce a new DADA teacher yesterday."

Harry, Sam and Ayden looked quizzically at Ron. "Was there meant to be a new teacher this year? What was wrong with the old one?"

Neville spoke up. "We haven't actually had a Defence teacher for any longer than a year. They all either quit, get fired or… are rendered incapable of teaching."

"Huh?" Ayden asked, his confusion shared by Harry and Sam. "Why? What happened to them all?"

Dean summarised it for them. "Well, in our first year, we had this teacher who turned out to be being possessed by You – Know – Who, and he was killed at the end of the year. Don't know how it happened… something to do with a mirror of desire, or something like that.

"Second year we had this totally brainless oaf who got scared out of his wits by a basilisk, tried to perform a memory charm on himself and had it totally backfire, wiping his entire memory.

"Third year we had Professor Lupin, the same guy you're staying with, and he was the best out of all of them. He actually knew what he was doing. But he kept missing classes, and at first none of us knew why, but then it got out that he was a werewolf, and all of the parents were furious with Dumbledore for allowing a werewolf to teach their kids, so he had to go. I wish he'd stayed though. He was the best. Ron lost his rat that year too. It just disappeared. No idea where it went.

"Fourth year we had another good teacher, but it turned out that he was a Death Eater who was using the Polyjuice Potion so that he could bring You – Know – Who back from the dead. A kid died too. Cedric Diggory. He was the Hogwarts champion in the Triwizard Tournament. He and the Beaubatons champion arrived at the Cup at the same time, so they took it together and got portkeyed to someplace where Cedric was killed. Delacour made it back though, and she brought Cedric's body back with her. She was saying that You – Know – Who was back. Some people believed her. Some thought she'd just gone mad after seeing Cedric get killed. Others thought she'd killed Cedric, and made up the story entirely. But anyway; so the fourth year teacher was given the Dementor's kiss.

"Then last year, the Ministry got it into their heads that Hogwarts was going a bit downhill, so they sent in one of their own to try and patch the place up. She was a total waste of space. Last year, we didn't do _any_ practical Defence work until the O.W.Ls. It was absolutely ridiculous. I'm surprised I passed at all. Then again… maybe the inspectors gave me an Exceeds Expectations because they knew how we'd all been taught that year, so we really did exceed their expectations by being able to produce a shield. She was shipped off to Azkaban at the end of the year. She'd been doing a whole lot of illegal stuff; sending the Dementor's after anyone who disagreed with her, using blood quills on students, a whole lot of stuff. We also found out at about the same time that she was fired that Delacour had been telling the truth, and that You – Know – Who really was back. What a great finish to the year, hey?

"So anyway, Dumbles normally introduces the new DADA teacher at the opening feast. But he didn't this time. Maybe he hasn't got anyone for it yet."

Harry, Sam and Ayden were all staring, dumbstruck, at Dean. "What?" He asked, confused.

"Bloody hell…" Harry said slowly. "If Dumbles hasn't managed to find a Defence Teacher… I wouldn't be surprised. I bet a lot of people are staring to think it's a cursed position, yeah?"

"Actually, yeah. There was even this thing in the _Prophet_ telling the stories from each year. Apparently this has been going on for years. I don't recon that article helped Dumbles in his quest for a new teacher." Seamus said thoughtfully.

Harry sat back in his chair, thinking. What had caused that to happen? Was the position really cursed? If so… who had cursed it? And why?

Oh well. He could dwell on that another day. For now, he had to get to class. "Well, come on then. We'll find out later today who the teacher is. We have to get to Herbology. Sam, you've got charms first, yeah?"

Sam nodded, and the six of them collected their things from under the table and they set off. "Huh," Harry said, a slight smirk on his lips. "After all my efforts… it looks like Jayme's going to be late after all."

OoO

"Ok… that made me hungry."

The five sixteen-year-olds had spent the previous hour and ten minutes wrestling with some form of plant that hadn't wanted any help in shedding its outer layer, and were now on their way to the Great Hall for a snack to get them through double potions.

Harry snorted. "No wonder you and Sam got off to such a great start, Ron. You're both so alike. _Anything_ makes you hungry."

"Well, I'm a growing wizard!" Ron defended. "…And I also happen to just enjoy the taste of food."

"Yeah, there's the underlying reason, just there." Neville said, playfully swatting Ron on the arm.

"But eating is the only way I feel alive!" Ron cried, reaching out to the ceiling in an imitation of some Shakespearian character.

The four other boys laughed as a red headed girl about a year younger than them all came up to them. "You're talking about food _again_ Ron? When do you ever stop eating?"

"You're all against me." Ron sighed, dramatically. "My only comfort now is the food for which you all so heartlessly torment me about."

"Yes, yes, dear, it's alright." The girl sighed, patting Ron on the shoulder as the other boys chuckled. The girl turned to Ayden and Harry. "Harry and Ayden, right? I'm Ginny. This twat's sister."

Harry snorted again before replying. "Yeah, that's us. Nice to meet you. I'd introduce you to Sam, but he's –"

"Here!" Sam announced, springing up beside Ayden. "I am starving! Sorry I'm a bit late, Flitwick asked me to stay behind so he could talk to me about catching up. I don't need any catching up though. You taught me well Harry! The stuff we were doing today was easy! Oh, hello!" Sam said, noticing Ginny for the first time. He went slightly pink. "You're in my charms class aren't you?"

Harry and Ayden glanced at each other and raised their eyebrows. Neither Sam nor Ginny noticed however.

Ginny nodded, smiling. "Yep. I'm Ginny. Ron's sister. So, Flitwick thinks you might need help catching up? I could tutor you if you like. I'm pretty good at Charms. It's one of my best subjects. I mean, only if you need it of course. You were just saying that you were alright with today's stuff, so…"

"Oh, no, that'd be great." Sam assured her quickly. "I mean… I'm not great at charms or anything… I could always use a bit of extra help. I'm sure there are heaps charms that I've never even heard of before, so that'd be great."

"Oh, ok then!" Ginny said, smiling, before she frowned in thought, trying to remember something. "Um… I came over here for a reason though… Oh yeah! Harry, Professor Dumbledore asked you to go and see him at the Head Table. He wants you to fix something, or get rid of something, or something like that."

Harry chucked. "I bet you _anything_ it's to do with Jayme's new found love of the rain. Ok, I'll go after I get something to eat. Thanks Ginny."

"No problem. Well, I've got to go get my Transfiguration stuff. Sam, do you have that next too?"

"Yeah, I do. I'll see you there, ok?"

"Sure." Ginny replied with a smile, before cheerfully bouncing off.

Ayden turned to Sam, thwacking him upside the head.. "Way to make it obvious! 'I could always use a bit of extra help! I'm sure there are heaps of charms I've never even heard of!' Honestly. Padfoot needs to have a word to you in regards to keeping them guessing."

"Huh? What cha say?" Sam asked, taking his eyes away from the corridor down which Ginny had disappeared down to blink confusedly up at Ayden. "Well, I better get going. Transfiguration next!"

Sam departed as quickly as he had come, heading in the same direction that Ginny had moments before, bypassing the Great Hall entirely. Harry cocked his head to one side. "Didn't he just say he was starving?"

Ayden shook his head. "Twitterpated," he said walking into the Great Hall.

Ron, clueless as ever, followed, confusedly asking, "Huh? What do you mean? What was obvious? And what does 'twitterpated' mean?"

OoO

After a quick snack, of which Rust did not hesitate to steal some of, Harry told Ayden and the others that he would meet them in the Potions room after he'd fixed Jayme's 'problem' and strolled up to the Head Table.

"You wanted to see me?" He asked casually.

Dumbledore frowned. Clearly Harry's lack of respect was starting to irritate him. "Yes, I did. Jayme came to me this morning with a … a rather unusual problem, and try as we might, we haven't been able to get rid if it yet."

"Really?" Harry asked. "What problem was that? And what does it have to do with me?"

"Jayme says you caused it to happen."

"Caused what to happen?"

"The storm cloud that is floating above his head." Dumbledore replied, a slightly angry tone to his voice.

Harry grinned easily. "Oh, that! You should have said something!"

Dumbledore ignored this last comment. "Why did you do it?"

"He was going to be late for class, so I decided to help him get out of bed."

"Will you remove it?"

"If he asks me nicely."

Dumbledore sighed. Stubborn boy. "He's in the Hospital Wing. If you would follow me please?"

Harry waited for Dumbledore to get up and come around the Head Table, then fell into step behind the old coot as he headed towards the door.

Heads tuned to look as Harry and Dumbledore walked along, and as Harry passed Ayden and the others, he called out cheerfully, "You owe me five galleons Finnegan!"

Seamus glowered at Harry and turned back to his salad.

Dumbledore led Harry up the Infirmary, where inside, Jayme was sitting on a bed wearing a rain coat, holding an umbrella and sniffing heavily as the storm above him continued to rage.

He looked up as Harry walked in. "Get rid of it!" he yelled angrily. "Get rid of it this instant, or so help me I'll –"

"Flick a booger at me?" Harry suggested, standing in front of his twin, a highly amused smirk on his face. "Keep your hat on, I'll get rid of it. But first, you have to ask me nicely."

"I'll be damned if I'm asking you nicely to do anything!" Jayme yelled, furious.

"Damned be you then." Harry replied. "Unless of course you want to spend your whole life with a storm on your head."

"GET RID OF IT!"

"You know Jayme… none of this would have happened if you hadn't taken it upon yourself to beat up that poor kid. You could have gone on, living your life as a Prince with no one to challenge your authority… much let to set storm clouds over your head. But I suppose… hindsight is twenty/twenty."

"Take the damn thing of right this very instant!" Jayme hissed through clenched teeth. The effect was slightly marred by the fact that his teeth were chattering. "Ah!" he yelped, as a lightning bolt hit his head, sending a miniature jolt through his body and leaving his hair even messier than before.

"Hey, I've told you what to do to get me to remove it. I'm just waiting for you."

Dumbledore stepped in. "Jayme… maybe it would be better if you just asked him nicely to get rid of it. I've wracked my brains – and my books – but nothing we've tried so far has worked."

"You're going to have to look harder then, because I'm _not_ asking this poncing praggart to do anything!"

Harry sat on the bed behind him, leaning back and checking his nails for dirt. "Well, I'm happy to stay here all day and watch you all try to get rid of it. It will be mighty amusing, that's for sure, because I know that there is absolutely nothing you can do that will get rid of it." Harry opened his school bag and pulled out his potions book. "You don't mind if I read while I wait do you? It's just, I'm missing out on class and all."

Without waiting for an answer, Harry rearranged himself so that he was leaning against the headrest and flicked open his potions book. He heard Dumbledore go over to Jayme's bed and the two of them start whispering. Harry suppressed a snort.

"Ok! Fine, damn it! Will you _please_ remove this stupid rain cloud!?" Jayme yelled a few minutes later.

Harry closed his book slowly. "Hm… the words were there… but the sincerity was lacking a bit." He said, turning to look at Jayme, whose nose was steadily going blue. "But I suppose, since it's probably the first time the word 'please' has come out of your mouth… I'll accept it. But next time it must be more heartfelt, mk?"

"Next time!?" Jayme yelped, a horrified expression on his face. Whether he was horrified because he had just asked someone to 'please' do something, or the thought that there could be a 'next time,' or whether he was horrified by both was unsure.

"Yeah, next time you don't get up. I need to make sure my ickle baby brother doesn't miss out on any of his schooling, don't I?" Harry waved his wand, and the storm cloud let loose one final bolt of lightning, before fizzling out into nothing.

"I'm not your brother." Jayme hissed furiously, as Dumbledore conjured a towel for him to dry himself off.

Harry sighed dramatically. "I would prefer it if I wasn't related to you too, Princey-Boy, but, unfortunately, we can't choose who our family is. Our biological family I mean. Now, do you mind if I go back to Potions? Only, first impressions really do count… and I'm about five minutes late for my first meeting with Professor Snape. I've heard he can be mighty mean when he wants to be."

Again, without waiting for a response from either wizard, Harry picked up his bag and left. Throwing over his shoulder as he went, "You might want to hurry Jayme. I've also heard Snape hates us Gryffindor's."

OoO

Five minutes later, Harry had managed to find his way back down to the ground floor, and proceeded to head down the tunnel that he assumed led to the Potions rooms.

After a few moments, Harry started to hear the unmistakeable sounds of a teacher reprimanding incapable students.

"Tell me, what is the first line on the board, Mr Weasley?" snapped an angry voice.

"Er… heat one cup of water and a drop of basilisk venom until boiling, then turn off the heat."

Harry stuck his head into the classroom, and, sure enough, caught sight of his fellow Gryffindor sixth years, along with some students from the other houses scattered around the classroom.

"I honestly don't know how you managed to get into my class Weasley!" A man that Harry assumed must be Professor Snape growled at Ron. "Why did you ignore the second half of the first instruction, hm? The most important part? _Turn off the heat._"

Harry decided that it was time to intervene. He knocked firmly on the door of the classroom, stepping inside as Snape whirled around to see who was interrupting his class.

"Potter! Why are you late?" he snapped once he saw who it was.

"My apologies Professor. Jayme had a small… issue that needed sorting, and it seemed that I was the only one capable of sorting it."

Snape did a mini double take. Clearly he had thought it was Jayme arriving late, not Harry. Snape's eye twitched in amusement.

"Was that you who placed that charm on Mr Potter?" he asked.

"It wasn't a charm, but yes Sir, it was me. He was being difficult this morning."

"I see." Snape replied. "What was it then, if not a charm?"

"Sorry, that's a secret of the trade. I'm afraid I can't give away all my tricks."

"Very well." Snape said, disappointed. "I have partnered you with Mr Malfoy today. That's him over there. You will be making the Confusios potion. Instructions are in your book."

"Certainly Sir." Harry replied, turning to head over to the boy Snape had pointed out. He didn't mind this Snape guy. Harry had been able to clearly see the smirk of amusement the Professor had attempted to hide. Clearly, he wasn't much of a Jayme fan either.

"Oh, and Potter." Snape said, causing Harry to turn around. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for being late."

Right. So maybe he wasn't much of a fan of Gryffindor's in general.

OoO

Harry dropped his school bag on the seat of his desk next to the blonde haired teen who Harry assumed was his partner. "Hi," he said, holding his hand out. "I'm Harry Potter."

The blonde looked disdainfully at Harry, ignoring the outstretched hand. "And I'm Draco Malfoy. What's your point?"

Harry let his hand drop. "Oh. I see. You're of the opinion that because I'm a Gryffindor and you're a Slytherin…we can't be friends."

"Of course we can't be friends, you fool. Slytherin's and Gryffindor's are born to be enemies. " Draco sneered contemptuously. "That and the fact that you are not only related to Potter; you are his twin."

"An unfortunate genetical mishap. I assure you: Jayme and I are entirely different."

"I don't care. Now hurry up and get your stuff ready. I've already waited long enough for you."

Harry shrugged and pulled his book out of his bag, flicking to the page with the Confusios potion on it. He and Draco started collecting the necessary ingredients needed for their potion.

"Hey, do you like Quidditch?" Harry asked.

"What's it to you? No – don't put that in yet."

Harry shrugged. "Because _I_ do, and I just wanted to chat about it with someone. Do you like Quidditch?"

"If I answer will you stop asking me?"

"Yep."

"Yes, I like Quidditch. You can put that in now."

"What's your favourite position?"

"I thought you said you'd stop asking me."

"I said I'd stop asking you if you liked Quidditch, not that I'd stop asking you questions. Pass me the salmon scales, I'll chop them up."

"If I answer will you stop asking me questions?"

"No, but it'll be less boring for you if you _do_ answer, because then I'd ask you different questions."

Draco sighed. "Seeker."

"Me too! Sam, Ayden and I are going to try out for the team. I'll be going for Seeker. Do you play on the Slytherin team?"

"Yes. And before you ask: I play Seeker. Turn the heat down now."

"Awesome, see? We have stuff in common. Are you any good?"

"Well, we have won the cup every year since I've been here. And for about eleven years before that too. Yes, I'm good. And so is the rest of the team. I can't say the same thing for the Gryffindor's though. _They've_ been on the bottom of the ladder for so many years I've lost count."

"How come? Are all the players really that bad?"

"No, not really. The Weasel twins are pretty good, so is the Weaselette. Weasel is ok as long as no one is watching."

"By 'Weasel' I assume you mean 'Weasley'?"

"Yeah, that's who I mean. They could do with some better Chasers, but they're alright. The main problem is Potter. Even with his glasses he can't see the snitch if it's flying right in front of him. They'd do better to get rid of him. But as far as I've heard he bullies anyone better suited to the position than him so that they back out; leaving the team with no other option than to take him on."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Well that won't be happening this year. Jayme'll be looking for the snitch from the stands this year. If you pour the juice in, I'll stir it."

It was Draco's turn to raise an eyebrow. "You're not going to let him push you off?"

Harry snorted. "I'm not gonna let that prat tell me to do anything. He has enough people who he can boss around. It's time someone showed some resistance."

"I agree. Pass me the knife. The Hufflepuff's and half the Gryffindor's are too scared to stand up to him, and half the Ravenclaw's and Slytherin's recon that if they suck up to him they'll get a share of his glory."

"It's sad really. That Dumbledore and our parents have let it get this bad. I mean, he thinks he's a god or something. It was always like that. Even when we were little. He always knew that people adored him, so he used it to the best of his advantage. It sucked."

"Is that why you left?"

"Yeah, pretty much. The whole atmosphere there was choking me. The only people who even knew I existed were Sirius and Remus."

"Remus? Remus Lupin? He was our DADA teacher in third year. I didn't realise he was connected to the Potter's in any way. Maybe that's why he didn't seem particularly warm to Potter. Potter hated him."

"Jayme hates anyone who won't submit to being his slave."

Draco snorted. "That's true. He hates me because of that. It's an interesting situation really. The Slytherin house has never been so cleanly split in two. Even in regards to You – Know – Who, a whole lot of people were undecided, or wavering, or whatever. But in regards to Potter, you either hate him… which sort of teams you up with the Weasels and everyone else who doesn't like him, or you adore him and suck up to him. Salazar Slytherin himself would be turning in his grave at the notion of Slytherin's and Gryffindor's agreeing on anything."

"Yeah, someone said something like that to me yesterday."

"And I really don't understand how Potter got into Gryffindor anyway. Aren't you meant to be brave? Self sacrificing? I don't see any of that in Potter. He comes across more as a Slytherin. One of the really snobby, stuck up Slytherin's mind you. I'd still hate him, even if he were in Slytherin. Too bloody pompous. Thinks he's royalty or something."

"Here, put these in next. Well actually, Jayme was meant to be put in Slytherin. Dumbledore wouldn't allow his Golden Boy to be put in the 'bad house' though."

Draco stopped what he was doing (checking the temperature of their potion) and stared at Harry. "Where did you get that bit of information?"

"I had a bit of a chat to the Sorting Hat when I was sorted. He was pretty miffed that Dumbles had overridden his choice for Jayme."

"The Sorting Hat told you that Jayme should have been in Slytherin?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Mhm. Said he couldn't fit into Gryffindor any less. He'd be better suited to Hufflepuff than Gryffindor apparently."

Harry jumped as Draco crowed. "That is priceless! Gryffindor's Golden Boy was meant to be in Slytherin! Oh, wait til this gets out!"

"Mister Malfoy, what are you hollering about?" Snape called from the front of the classroom. Harry and Draco looked up from their potion to find everyone staring at them perplexedly. Apparently Draco's shout had attracted a bit of attention.

"Er… sorry Professor. Just…getting to know my potions partner. Got a bit carried away. Won't happen again."

Snape frowned slightly. "You see that it doesn't. Longbottom nearly tipped the whole bottle of cheese juice into his potion with the fright you gave him. That would have been disastrous."

"Yes Sir." Draco said, turning back to the potion.

"Is he always like that?" Harry asked quietly.

"Unfortunately. He's better with the Slytherin's than all the other houses though. For example, if, Merlin forbid, I had been a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw, he would have docked points. If I had been a Gryffindor… he probably would have docked double points and given a detention."

"That's fair."

"Yeah, I know. But it suits me, so I'm not complaining."

Harry snorted. "Well, we've only got to add the lacewings now, and we're done. Here, I've already chopped them up."

"You seem to know a fair bit of stuff for a kid who's been on the streets for the last seven years of his life. You don't seem behind at all. How is that?"

"Well, we weren't exactly cut off from wizarding society all together. We had access to the books and other stuff like that."

"How did no one recognise you?"

"Well, no one would recognise Sam and Ayden anyway, and I just cast a glamour. Changed my hair colour, tweaked a few facial features, etcetera."

"Ah, right then. That would explain it."

"Right! We're done! I've got the vials already."

"Thanks Potter."

"No problem. Hey, could you do me a favour?"

"Depends."

"Can you call me 'Harry' instead of 'Potter'? I hate being reminded of my relatives every time someone says my name."

Draco looked at Harry, only just realising that he had not only had an entire conversation with a Gryffindor, it had been civil…and almost friendly… and… Merlin forbid… he had enjoyed it. "You tricked me!"

"Huh?" Harry asked, confused.

"You sneaky little –!" Draco said, a slightly impressed smile on his face. "How very Slytherin of you."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"You fished for a topic that I liked talking about so that we could have a conversation!"

"Oh, that." Harry said smiling. "Well, it turns out we aren't particularly different. We both like Quidditch, we both favour the Seeker position, neither of us like Jayme… I just wanted to see if Slytherin's and Gryffindor's are really that different. And I found that at least, you and I aren't."

Draco paused for a moment. Harry was right. Slytherin's and Gryffindor's weren't really that different. But they couldn't be friends. Everything would be wrong if the Prince of Slytherin befriended a Gryffindor. But then… they were sort of on the same side in regards to Jayme Potter… and he didn't really seem that bad.

"Ok then." He said finally, holding out his hand, slightly stiffly. "But don't expect me to be all buddy buddy. We're not friends. Just acquaintances."

Harry grinned, grasping Draco's hand. "We'll be friends before too long, I assure you. No one can resist my charms for too long."

Draco raised an eyebrow. They really were alike.

OoO

**Yay! Harry and Draco are… well… just acquaintances for now… but hey! It's a start:D **

**Hope they didn't seem too OoC… I rushed the ending. I've got to leave soon and this is my last chance to update the story, so I had to get it finished.**

**Review!! See you all in two weeks:D**

**Love Bundi**


	8. Professor Tracks

**Disclaimer****: Not mine, so go away. **

**AN****: What did you guys think of Deathly Hallows? I loved it!! I think it did justice to the rest of the series and made all the emotional effort we put in over the years 100 worth it! I got it read in 2 days, which was pretty good seeing as my sister kept stealing it off me. ;P**

**Some parts – ok, I lie… a LOT of parts – made me cry though. Let me know what you thought of both this chapter of SRA and also what you thought of DH in a review! I really want to talk about it!**

**Yeah, ok, back on track now…**

**Right! I am SO, SO SORRY for the super delay in the updates of both this and ACF! I was on holidays for two weeks, then I was too excited about the coming book… then I just couldn't find the motivation to write anything (I tried! I really did!). I wrote out a whole 14 pages of ACF and then realised that it was absolute CRAP! So I had to start again. Really motivating when that happens.**

**NOT!**

**And also, there have been quite a few… issues… at home that I've been attempting to deal with, so I've just been really ...un-motivated. AND! Bloody, bloody technology!! I would have had this posted last weekend but for stupid bloody technology:slap slap:**

**But anyway. **

**I think I'm back on track now, so here we go!**

**(There's another AN at the bottom…I thought this one was already too long. Please read it! Thanks.)**

**On with the story:D**

**OoO**

_**Professor Tracks**_

_**OoO **_

_Dear Moony, Padfoot, Kirsten, Anna, Suri, Ebony, Dhani and Jesse…_

_This is Ayden writing to you (with Harry supervising) from the Gryffindor table (Yep! All three of us ended up in Gryffindor! What a surprise…) at lunch time on the first day of classes (that's why Sam isn't writing as well… he's too busy eating.)._

_Well, Hogwarts doesn't seem too bad so far…the Sorting was fun – each of us talked to the Hat (Archimedes, as Sam named him) for a good 20 minutes at least. Longest Sorting in history apparently. _

_(Harry says that Archimedes told him that Jayme was supposed to be a Slytherin, but Dumbles wouldn't let his Golden Boy be in the House with the worst reputation. No surprises there… Archimedes was pretty miffed about the whole situation though.)_

_So far, classes wise, we have had Herbology and Potions, and Sam has had Charms and Transfiguration. They all went alright – we reckon Sam's already got his eye on a girl. Ginny Weasley – a Gryffindor in his year. He's talking to her now actually, and we're pretty certain his face isn't normally that pinkish colour._

_We've befriended several people in our House already, and nearly one from Slytherin (Draco Malfoy. Harry 'tricked' him into having a conversation in potions. They're not that different actually, and Harry convinced him that they should at least be acquaintances. More on that in another letter.) _

_The four other boys in our dormitory (excluding us and Princey-Boy) are Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan and Ron Weasley. (We'll get Sam to write to you and tell you who's in his Dorm some time in the near future) They're all pretty good guys, from what we can tell so far. We had a nice little chat yesterday evening before we all went to bed, got to know each other a bit, etc, and we've been hanging out together since._

_The Weasleys' seem to be a pretty good bunch actually. Ginny seemed nice when we met her briefly, Ron is in our dorm as I said just then, and the Weasley twins – Fred and George – seem to be kindred spirits. We've already got a challenge on with them. Me, Harry and Sam versus Fred, George and another guy – Lee Jordan – in a prank war. Should be fun. _

_:Laughs maniacally:_

_They don't stand a chance._

_Aaaaaand… that's about it for now._

_Oh wait! Jayme wasn't getting out of bed this morning… so Harry decided to sic one of his 'follow-you-around-until-you-beg-for-mercy" storm clouds on him to teach him how to get up on time. Dumbles couldn't get rid of it, so poor ickle Jayme had to ask politely for Harry to remove it. Serves him right._

_Now, that really is it for now._

_Will send another letter soon._

_Love Ayden (and Harry who was supervising, and Sam, who doesn't even know we were writing a letter because he's chatting up Ginny, but we know he gives his love anyway)._

"Wonderfully put my dear fellow!" Harry said cheerfully, biting into a chicken schnitzel sandwich. "Now you better hurry up and grab a sandwich before they all disappear."

He, Ayden and Sam were the only ones from their group of eight Gryffindor boys at the lunch table. The other four had only brought their stuff for the first two lessons, and had to go back and pick up their books for the rest of the day.

Ayden suddenly groaned. The sandwiches in front of them had disappeared all at once, to be replaced by fruit and biscuits. He groaned so loudly and pitifully that Harry pushed the remaining half of his schnitzel sandwich over to him.

Ayden frowned. "I don't want to steal your sandwich. Then you'll still be hungry. Besides… you've bitten it!"

"Since when have you cared who's bitten something, as long as you get to eat? Anyway, it's alright, I've already had two of those sandwiches. They're really good. And if you really want to, can't you just transfigure something into a sandwich?"

"No, he couldn't," said a new voice. "Food is one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration." (AN: Couldn' resist mate!)

Harry turned around and Ayden leaned back in his chair to see who the speaker was. She looked to be about their age, and had brown eyes and a mass of bushy hair.

"Oh!" She said, seemingly startled that she had interrupted their conversation. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt… I just heard you ask why he couldn't transfigure something to eat… and my mouth just sort of spoke of its own violation! I'm really sorry to interrupt-"

"Don't worry about it," Harry interrupted with a smile, trying to calm her down. She seemed to be working herself into a frenzy. "I never knew that there was a Law of Transfiguration."

The girl's eyes widened slightly in shock, and Ayden – who had always loved anything to do with Transfiguration – said indignantly, "You what? How can you not have known that Harry?"

"Sorry! I just don't get overly excited about changing something from one thing into another!"

Ayden rolled his eyes, shaking his head in resigned disbelief. Turning to the girl, he said, "I'm Ayden Daniels; and this know-it-none is Harry Potter."

"Yes," the girl said, smiling at the term 'know-it-none.' "I recognised you from the Sorting. I'm Hermione Granger."

"Pleased to meet you Miss Granger," Ayden and Harry said together, taking turns to shake hands.

Hermione smiled. "Please, call me Hermione. I feel like my Mum when you say 'Miss Granger'."

"Hermione it is then," Ayden said, smiling back. "So, you like Transfiguration then?"

"Ooh, yes, I love it! The thought that you can change anything into something else… it's just so exciting!"

"I agree! You can turn totally useless objects into something useful – it's really… well… useful."

Harry was still confused about the Gamp's Law thing. "But you can't change anything into food? That's not very useful."

"Yes, but you can change pretty much everything else, Harry," Ayden said impatiently.

"Well… if food is one of five of… Thingy's Law… then what are the other four things that you _can't_ change?"

Hermione and Ayden spoke at the same time. "It's in the first chapter of _Transfigurations and Transformations, Grade_ 6."

As the two of them grinned appreciatively at each other, Harry rolled his eyes. "We have Defence Against the Dark Arts now. We better be heading off."

"Oh, I have that two. Do you know your way to the classroom yet?"

"Nup," Harry said, picking up his school bag. "Do you mind showing us?"

"Not at all!" Hermione said happily, swinging her bag onto her back.

As Hermione led Harry and Ayden to the Defence classroom, Harry tuned out completely to their in-depth discussion about, not only the methods of Transfiguration now, but Ancient Runes and Charms too.

Harry sighed. _Fortunately_, Ayden wasn't interested at all in homework or study… he just liked to know everything he could about some subjects, and so looked them up in his spare time… otherwise, between Ayden and Hermione, there would have been no escaping from the colour coded charts and rigid study time-tables.

OoO

Harry, Ayden and Hermione were the first ones to arrive at the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and as they walked in, Harry and Ayden both came to a halt.

"Wait," they said quickly, as Hermione went to take a seat. The classroom looked innocent enough… but something was off.

"What is it?" Hermione asked curiously, looking at the two boys who were standing uncertainly in the doorway.

"I'm not sure. Something's off. I think there have been charms put on the chairs that will take effect as soon as anyone sits in them," Harry said. Ayden nodded his agreement.

Hermione looked surprised, but turned around and muttered a revealing charm over her chair. A whining sound came from the chair for a moment, before it went silent again.

"A Whining charm," Hermione said. "It would have made me think I could hear a whining sound, and made it difficult for me to hear anything else."

Harry and Ayden quickly waved their wands over their own chairs while Hermione disabled the charm on hers. Ayden's chair turned out to have a Sticky charm on it (he would have been sticky for the rest of the day) and Harry's had a Pices Nez charm on it (he would have kept smelling rotten fish at random times through the day).

Just as Harry and Ayden finished disabling the charms on their chairs, a note dropped on to each of the three now occupied desks.

Cautiously, they checked the notes for booby traps before opening them up.

_Congratulations on finding and disabling the booby trapped chairs! Ten points to Gryffindor for each of you for discovering the charms, and another ten each for successfully disabling them._

_The rest of the class will be coming in in a moment; please do not tell them about the charms. _

_Thank you!_

_Professor Tracks_

Ayden looked up from his note at the other two, looking impressed with himself. "I got points on the first day! Go me."

Harry smiled and rolled his eyes. "Well, I got back those ones I lost in potions, so that's good I suppose."

Hermione didn't say anything about that, but opened up a new topic, because more of the class walked in just as she opened her mouth. "So Ayden, what are your views on the International Ancient Runes Collaboration?"

"Is something burning?" A Hufflepuff asked his fellows. He, like all the other people who had just arrived, had sat down without checking for booby traps.

"I can't smell anything burning," his friend said. "But I can smell paint. Did they re-paint this classroom?"

"You noses are out of whack," said a third. "There's no smell in here. I think there may be some flies stuck in the light cover though. They're buzzing pretty loudly."

Harry, Hermione and Ayden were distracted from the confused Hufflepuff's by the arrival of more class mates. They all arrived in a bunch, and Ron, Dean, Seamus, Neville and Draco were among them. Draco nodded to Harry before going to sit in the back row with some fellow Slytherin's, and the four Gryffindor boys pulled up chairs around Hermione, Ayden and Harry.

"You've got it wrong Neville!" Ron was saying animatedly as they sat down. The two of them were clearly in the middle of some debate. "The Chuddley Cannons have been practicing _extra_ hard this season! They've got a chance!"

"No Ron, you're dreaming. The only team they have a chance of beating is the Applby Arrows. And that's only because they've lost pretty much all their players this season because of that combined foul and the back-up's have had to be brought in." Neville's and Ron's voices had both been getting louder and louder as they spoke.

"Sorry to break up this little argument boys," Dean interrupted, frowning, "But is it just me, or has everything gone purple?"

"Could you all stop shouting?" Seamus whispered, his hands over his ears. "Why is everyone yelling?"

Harry, Ayden and Hermione exchanged raised eyebrow-ed expressions. Every single person in the class was complaining about something – coloured sight, strange smells, hearing problems, etc.

Ron yelled, "WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Another person was complaining about the room being too hot, and others complaining about a chill wind or rain drops falling on their heads.

Draco Malfoy was sitting in the corner, watching everyone else with confusion. He had not yet noticed his brightly orange coloured, tightly ringleted hair.

Harry, Hermione and Ayden were the only ones who had checked and made safe their chairs.

"Alright everyone!" A new voice called as multi-coloured sparks flitted through the air, drawing everyone's attention to the front of the classroom. A young woman stood there, in her mid to late twenties, with lightly wavy caramel coloured hair, holding her wand in the air.

She was not wearing what all of the other professors had seen that day had been wearing. She was wearing no robes of any sort; rather, a pair of dark, tight jeans with black knee high boots over the top and a sleeveless emerald green silk top.

"Do any of you know what has happened here today?" she asked cheerfully, walking down the stairs that lead to her office.

"What is she saying?" Ron asked in a loud whisper that carried clearly to everyone in the room. He clearly thought he was being quiet. "I can't hear what she's saying."

"That is because," The Professor said, a smile on her face, "I placed a Whisper charm on the chair you are sitting on, and it has now taken effect on you."

"PARDON?" Ron yelled as Seamus whimpered quietly, his hands still clamped over his ears. Again, it was clear Ron did not realise how loud he was actually speaking.

The Professor laughed again, and waved her wand over the class, cancelling the charms.

"I said," she continued, still smiling, "that I placed a Whisper charm on your chair, Mr…?"

"Weasley." Ron replied, speaking normally, as Seamus took his hands away from his ears and Dean declared quietly that everything had stopped being purple.

"Mr Weasley, and that is why it sounded to you as though we were all talking exceedingly quietly."

"Oh."

The Professor continued. "I am Professor Tracks. It is my duty to make sure you know as much self defence as possible by the end of the year. I placed a charm on each chair in this room. I wanted to test you. To see which of you would think to check that the chair you were about to sit on was safe, and also to see if any of you could successfully deactivate that charm if discovered."

Seamus cocked his head to one side, thinking. "How come?" he asked.

"Good question Mr Finnegan. Because I wanted to point out to you that the world outside this school is no longer safe, and that you never know when something seemingly innocent…isn't actually as innocent as it looks. I am sure you all know by know that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is, once again, at large. I am here to prepare you for what ever you may come up against while away from the safety this school provides.

"I have charmed each chair in this classroom for each class I have had today. So far, none of the previous classes discovered the charms. But in this class, three people successfully discovered and deactivated the charms. I awarded twenty points each to these three Gryffindor's before the rest of you arrived. May I ask, what are your names, and what made you think to check the chairs?"

Everyone in the class was looking at Harry, Hermione and Ayden, and as the Professor asked the question, Hermione turned to look at the two boys.

"Er…" Harry said, slightly embarrassed by the number of eyes on him. "I'm Harry Potter, and they're Ayden Daniels and Hermione Granger. Er… I dunno what made me think there was something up… Ayden and I just… felt that something was out of place. We could sense that there had been charms put on something in the room. Hermione was the one who actually checked first though."

Professor Tracks' eyes widened. "You were able to sense that there had been charms cast?"

Harry and Ayden nodded slowly.

Professor Tracks looked impressed. "That is a very rare talent boys! You are able to sense magic around you. I have only ever heard of a couple of people who are able to do that!"

Harry felt the blood rising to his cheeks, and as he looked at Ayden, he saw that he too was slightly embarrassed by this attention.

Professor Tracks looked at them in wonderment for a moment more, before realising their embarrassment, and moving on with the lesson.

"Sorry," she said. "So, as I said before, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is once again at large, and that means that we must all constantly be on our guard."

"She sounds like Professor Moody," Dean whispered. "Constant Vigilance!"

Professor Tracks heard him, and laughed. "It's funny you should mention that Mr…?"

"Thomas."

"It's funny you should mention that Mr Thomas. You see, when going through my Auror training, Alastor Moody was my mentor. I suppose you could say that his paranoia rubbed off on me somewhat. _Expelliarmus!_"

Without warning, Professor Tracks shot the disarming spell at Dean and, because he was totally unprepared for it, he not only lost his wand, but his seating, and he fell of his chair with a heavy thud.

"Constant Vigilance," Professor Tracks stated, smiling at him.

OoO

"I recon she's a pretty good teacher," Hermione was saying as she, Ginny, Rust and the seven boys (Sam had joined them as well as Ginny) headed through the corridors after dinner to the common room.

They had gone outside after Defence Against the Dark Arts to explore the grounds, and Sam had joined them not long after (Ginny had gone to the library). They had met Hagrid, the Game Keeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and had gotten along quite well with him. Especially Rust.

Once Ginny returned from the library, the ten of them spent the remainder of the afternoon out in the grounds, getting some fresh air and exploring before heading back inside for dinner, which they had now finished.

"Yeah, tell that to my backside," Dean grumbled, in regards to Hermione's comment. "Note to self: Always have wand at the ready in Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"If she was mentored by Professor Moody, then we're probably going to learn heaps this year," Hermione continued, ignoring Dean.

"I hope she'll be as good as Lupin and Moody," Neville said. "Those two teachers sort of made up for the two wasted years we'd had before. Hopefully her teaching will make up for last year."

"Well I liked her," Ayden said cheerfully.

"You just like her 'cause she's pretty and she gave you points," Harry retorted, a smirk on his face.

"That's not true! She's pretty, funny, cheerful, she gave me house points, she seems to be a good teacher, and she told off Jayme when he came in late. I like anyone who stands up to Jayme."

"Yeah… I suppose… but I still noticed that the first reason you listed was the fact that she's pretty."

Ayden huffed, and Harry grinned in triumph.

"I wonder what we'll be learning in Transfiguration this year," Ron said casually. Ayden and Hermione both perked up immediately.

"Ooh, yes," Hermione chirped. "I can't wait to find out! I heard she's planning on teaching us about animagus'! That'll be so interesting! I'd love to be an animagus, wouldn't you?"

Ginny and each of the boys agreed heartily, and they all started talking so animatedly about what animals they thought they might be that they didn't notice Ayden, Sam and Harry share a slightly guilty, slightly proud look.

"_I_ think that I'd be a lion," Ron announced as they walked. "Talk about a way to show your house pride! Becoming a lion animagus!"

"I don't know Ron," Seamus said seriously. "I've heard that a part of your natural appearance transfers onto the animal you turn into. Do lions have freckles? Tapir's do. Well… when they're babies at least. So do baby deer actually."

Ron scowled. "Yeah, well I'd have dots on my face wouldn't I? I heard of a killer whale that had dots on it. Or I'd just have a huge red mane. My freckles wouldn't necessarily be the feature to come through. And what's a tapir anyway?"

Hermione automatically started to speak. "It's a really docile animal that can be found in –"

"It was a rhetorical question!" Ron snapped grumpily.

They were about half way back to the Common Room when Harry, Sam and Ayden all sensed someone standing in the shadows behind a suit of armour. After seven years of living on the streets, their senses were all quite sharpened.

The three of them slowed their walk down, and frowned at the shadows, trying to work out who the two people they could vaguely see in the shadows were. Experience told them that people who hid in the shadows generally meant no good.

The fact that Rust was quietly growing did nothing to ease their caution.

"Hey," Harry called out, causing the others to stop. "Who's there?"

There was a pause, in which Ron, Hermione and the others all turned to look at the shadows, and then the two people stepped out.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Trying to catch us unawares Jayme? Looks like you and Zabini were planning to surprise us. Got a little party organised for us? How nice of you."

Jayme sneered. "I have a bone to pick with you three," he said, looking pointedly at Harry, Ayden and Sam.

"Is that so?" Harry asked conversationally. "Well, it's alright. You don't have to share your bone with us. We had our fill at dinner, but thanks for the offer." Harry, Sam and Ayden went to walk past, but Jayme and Zabini moved to stand in front of them.

"We have a problem with the lack of respect you are displaying," Zabini said coolly. "We'd like to teach you to show a little humility in the face of your betters."

"Look," Sam said in a bored voice. "The only ones who are going to show a little humility if you don't get out of the way, is you two."

"Is that a threat?" Jayme asked.

Sam rolled his eyes. "What is it with you and that question? I swear, you've asked it ten times since last night. Yes, it's a threat. Now move."

Zabini's eyes hardened into slits. "How dare you! _Rictusee!_"

A pair of what looked like red hot iron ropes flew out of the end of Zabini's wand, heading straight for Sam, who ducked, had his own wand out in a nanosecond, turned the iron ropes into two threads of spiders silk and pointed his wand back at Zabini.

Harry and Ayden had reacted within the blink of an eye too, and they both had their wands trained on Zabini, their eyes flashing dangerously. Behind them, Harry could hear Ron and the others all drawing their wands too, and pointing them at either Jayme or Zabini.

"That wasn't very nice," Sam said quietly, his calm voice showing Ayden and Harry how angry he was.

Zabini didn't respond. He glared angrily at the three of them, his wand still pointing at Sam.

"If anyone needs to be taught a lesson here," Ayden said, his voice filled with fury, "it's you two. Your egos need to be deflated a bit if you ask me."

Zabini scoffed. "Oh, and I suppose you three think you're the ones to do that, hmm?"

"Look," Harry snapped, "this is only our second day here and already, I've wanted to murder both you and Jayme multiple times. Right now, I'm having a rather hard time forcing myself to not do that. In short, yes, I think we are just the ones to put a bit of a puncture wound in your ego, and if you keep tempting us, we're going to do it."

Suddenly, Rust yelped in pain as a hex of some description hit him, throwing to the ground. Harry spun around, fury blazing in his eyes. They had all been so occupied by Zabini that they had forgotten about Jayme.

Harry barely spared a moment for rational thought before he launched himself at Jayme, forgetting entirely about his wand. Jayme managed to get a couple of jinxes out and throw them at Harry, but they missed, and then Harry was on top of him.

Admittedly, Jayme put up a fairly decent fight. He managed to block one or two of Harry's fury driven blows, and he even managed to last about ten seconds before he was thrown against the wall with a pair of hands gripping the front of his robes so tightly his feet were barely touching the ground, and, for the second time in two nights, with a pair of emerald green eyes, inches from his own, staring at him in hatred.

"If you ever pull another stunt like that again Jayme…" Harry hissed, easily overpowering the struggles and barely even aware of Jayme's injuries; he was clearly only just still conscious, his nose was steadily dripping blood, and his eye was already starting to swell. It was going to develop a nice bruise if nothing was done to stop it. Harry didn't even have to finish his threat. Jayme understood perfectly, and hated Harry for it.

Even more than he already did of course.

Snarling furiously, Harry relinquished his hold on the front of Jayme's robes, and turned and looked around, letting his twin slide feebly down the wall to sit on the ground and nurse the many injuries he had sustained in the previous ten seconds.

Harry walked quickly to where Ayden was comforting Rust, pleased to see that his fox did not look hurt; just shaken. "Hey there buddy," he said, squatting down and rubbing Rust's head gently. "You ok?"

Rust yipped lightly, shuffling closer to Harry, who understood the request and picked him up, holding him close.

Hearing a noise from behind him, Harry turned around.

Pinned against the opposite hall from Harry was Zabini, held in place by Sam. Even though Sam was half a head shorter than Zabini, he was having no difficulty with the taller boy. In fact, it appeared that Sam was the one supporting Zabini's weight.

Sam, who was holding Zabini's robes in the same way Harry had been holding Jayme's, stepped back from Zabini and let go. Harry had suspected correctly. As soon as Sam let go, Zabini slid down the wall in much the same fashion that Jayme had moments before, hitting the ground with a dull thump.

"And next time I won't be so lenient," Sam hissed at Zabini's feebly stirring form.

"Well, I hope that you two have had enough of an impact on those bastards that they know not to try anything like that for a long time," Ayden said coldly, glaring angrily at the two semi-conscious teens.

"You alright Rust?" Sam asked concernedly, coming up and rubbing Rust's head.

Rust, still safely enclosed in Harry's arms, barked softly, licking Sam's fingers. "Eeeew…" Sam complained half-heartedly, wiping his hands on his school robes.

Harry smiled, his fury at Jayme and Zabini pretty much gone now. "I hope they've learnt their lesson too," he said, referring to what Ayden had said. "Cause if there's a next time, the lesson's gonna be harder."

He, Ayden and Sam turned around, and were about to continue up off the corridor when they remembered their fellow Gryffindor's, all standing in a clump a little further down the hall than where Jayme and Zabini now sat and looking at the three boys in astonishment, their jaws hanging slack.

"What?" Ayden asked.

Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Dean, Seamus and Neville stared for a moment longer, before Ron said slowly, "That…was impressive. You took them out in ten seconds flat!"

Dean, Ginny, Neville and Seamus agreed immediately, but Hermione's jaw dropped still further before she snapped furiously, "Impressive? Impressive!? That wasn't 'impressive!' That was stupid! Was it really necessary to beat them up? I had hoped we'd able to get out of this little confrontation without any injury, but apparently not! Fighting is against school rules!"

"Hermione," Sam started reasonably, "he attacked Rust. It wouldn't have been so bad if he'd attacked one of us; we can defend ourselves. But attacking Rust? That was just low. They deserved it."

"I'm sure you could have just told them off or something! Or, I'm a prefect! I could have given them detention!"

Harry scoffed coldly. "And do you think they actually would have turned up to detention? Or listened to us if we'd 'told them off'? I doubt it. No one hurts Rust and gets away with it. In fact, no one touches anyone I care for and gets away with it."

"But…" Hermione was losing the argumentative tone now, realising Harry's point. "But couldn't you have just…?"

"Do you think they'll attempt to hurt Rust again any time soon?" Ayden cut in.

"Well, no, but… I still think that –"

"Hermione, they've had that coming to them for a while." When Hermione stilled looked set to protest further, Sam continued, "Ok, how about if we consider that payment for what they did to Rust, what they did to that street kid and how pratty they've been since we got here?"

Hermione hesitated. "I still think you didn't need to beat them up about it. Especially not to such a degree."

"Right, well we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Because, in my opinion, they deserved more."

"I agree," Neville said flatly. There were nods from the rest of the group.

Realising that she was out numbered, Hermione said frustratedly, "Oh, ok, so they deserved it. But I still don't think you should have taken them up on it! They'll get what they deserve soon enough!"

"Ah, but Hermione…" Ayden said slyly. "What if _we're _the ones to give them 'what they deserve', and this _is_ 'soon enough'?"

Hermione gave up. Letting out a noise of frustration, she said, "Fine! What are we going to do with them then? We can't just leave them here."

"Why not?" asked eight people simultaneously.

"Because we can't!" Hermione looked around for support, but received none. "Ooh," she groaned angrily. "Well how about we at least set something up so that Filch or someone will find them?"

Sam smiled. "Ooh, we can do that for sure!" he said. "Leave that to us!"

A couple of minutes later found Sam and Ayden running around the corner to join Harry, Ginny and the others, who were waiting for them. A loud bang had just issued from he corridor where Jayme and Zabini were still lying, and there was an odd purplish green coloured smoke curling around the corner after the brothers.

"Right," Sam said cheerfully. "We used a spell to find out where Filch is, so we know he'll come upon the hallway from the other end. So he won't find us, but he'll find Jayme and Zabini in no time."

"I'd suggest you all go and check out our handiwork, but it smells pretty bad. We did an awesome job though," Ayden added, a grin filling his face. Sure enough, as the purplish green smoke reached them, so did an awful smell.

"Yeah," Ron said, choking slightly and hurriedly tuning to head down the corridor back to the common room, "I think we'll take your word for it."

OoO

**AN: So, what cha think? That was both difficult and fun to write. I enjoyed the start, had difficulty with the first half of the middle, enjoyed the second half of the middle, and hated the end. Oh well. The story was updated, that's all that matters.**

**One thing though… someone pointed out to me that the Weasley twins were supposed to be finished their schooling by the time Harry's in his sixth year. **

**I know, but I just love those two too much to leave them out, so let's just say that the whole chapter in the fifth book where they quit school never happened, and they are a year younger than in the books. :)**

**And no, this ISN'T going to be Ayden/Hermione. Least ways, I certainly don't plan for it to be that at the moment. :)**

**Now review, my faithful readers! And they shall aid in the speed with which the next chapter arrives!**

**NO seriously… the more reviews I get the easier it is for me to write. :) Cheers!**

**Bundi**


	9. Prank Wars and Unfortunate Memories

**DISCLAIMER****: If only. **_**If**__**only**_**. But it was not meant to be. :Cries: Oh well. Harry Potter aint mine folks!! Sorry to disappoint. (And by that, I mean me. Sorry to disappoint me.) And also, the bit from The Lion King isn't mine either. That bit belongs to Disney. ) I only own the plot, and any characters you don't recognise, which includes Dimitrov, a new character introduced in this chap.**

**AN****: I'm back! You glad to see me:Runs from hail of reprimands: Ok! I'm sorry! I know I should have updated faster, and I know I promised, but I couldn't think what to write! I've been drifting from FanFiction a lot lately… It's odd. **

**But, I think I'm getting back into the swing of things. ) **

_**WARNING!!! This chap has a pretty dark spot – it alludes to some pretty nasty stuff that happened to an ex-member of the gang. So if you're, say, thirteen or under, I suggest you don't read it. If you still want to I can't stop you, but I warn against it.**_

**You find out a bit more about Harry, Ayden and Sam's past in this chapter too, only it's not really pleasant. That's what the above warning is for.**

**TSUNAMI! For those who don't know, it's a huge tidal wave, and it's pronounced 'sue-naa-mee.' It only gets a brief mention, but I thought I'd let you know what it was. )**

**Anyway, heres the next chapter of Street Rules Apply. ) **

_**OoO**_

_**Prank Wars and Unfortunate Memories**_

_**OoO**_

"You're sure?"

The cold, snakelike voice spoke seemingly out of the darkness, laced with malice, hate, and – strangely – excitement.

"One-hundred percent My Lord. I received the letter from my son when I woke up about half an hour ago," a woman's voice replied. Her voice was arrogant sounding and slightly clipped – the type of arrogance and clipping one gets to their voice when they spend all their time in high society. She also sounded quite pleased with herself.

There was a laugh. A cold, malicious and evil laugh that bounced off the walls and echoed around the vast room. "And, does your son know where the boy has been hiding this past seven years?"

"Apparently he has been living on the streets, along with a bunch of other urchins. Two of them have come with him to Hogwarts. The others are staying with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin."

"I care not for the others. How is it that he was not found before now? A mere child surviving by himself on the streets of London? Unlikely. He must have had help. Who was it that helped him? Why did they not inform the world that he had been found?"

"He, and the others with him, claim that they had no help. The only contact they had with adults while living on the streets was with the Muggle security people. Please-men? They claim to have survived entirely on their own."

There was a pause. The silence, brief though it was, filled the room and echoed almost as loudly, or so it seemed, as the laugh from earlier. Then the Dark Lord's snakelike voice came again.

"If that is indeed the truth, then he – and his companions – must be powerful. What has your son said in regards to their strength?"

"Well… my son informed me that the other Potter child – the one they all hail – claims that the boy and his two friends put up a rather decent fight when they were cornered. They wiped out nearly all of the first lot of people who came to collect them. Then, once reinforcements came, they managed to get about half of them too before they were overcome."

"How many?"

"They managed to eliminate around about two hundred to two hundred and fifty out of three hundred My Lord. Both Aurors and normal Ministry employees."

"Three adolescents?" The voice was disbelieving; shocked.

"They did have one Auror with them. Sirius Black. Apparently he is close to the boy. As I mentioned before, he is the one they are all staying with. Him and the werewolf."

There was another silence, again, one that echoed around the room and pressed in on the ears. It lasted longer this time.

"Three boys, and a single man?" If the woman hadn't known better she might have thought that the Dark Lord voice spoke with a tinge of awe mixed in with his disbelief. But she knew better.

"Yes, My Lord."

Again, silence.

"How were they performing the magic? Surely they haven't had wands all this time. Although that definitely would have aided them in their survival. The Ministry would have been informed by the wand maker had any of his wands been stolen. And I doubt that they were able to buy the wands without being recognised."

"Perhaps they stole the wands off adults, My Lord?"

"…Perhaps."

There was another pause, then, "Very well. I want the boy monitored closely. _Very_ closely. I want to know everything there is to know about him. And the two others with him too. If they were able to resist capture like you claim they did, they must be very powerful. I want their histories too. I want to know how it is they became strong. If they are descendants of heirs to anyone special, that might be the reason. And I need to know. Do you understand?"

"Of course, My Lord."

The Dark Lord seemed to ponder for a moment, before, "Is there anyway your son can get close to the boy and his companions?"

The woman's eye twitched in disgust for a moment, before she managed to school her features once more. Fortunately for her, the Dark Lord was staring thoughtfully at the ceiling, and did not notice her break in composure.

"I am afraid not, My Lord," she said gravely. For the first time, a bit of nervousness fringed her voice. She was concerned how the Dark Lord would react to what she said. "The boy clearly despises his twin. Anyone who is Jayme Potter's friend will have no chance of getting anywhere close to him. That, and he and Blaise have already had a couple of run-in's. Already there is a clear wall of enmity between them. And the boy's companions."

She stepped back half a pace, waiting for her Lord's reaction. Fortunately for her however, the Dark Lord was in a relatively good mood. The child who had been born to defy him had finally been found, and he would finally be able to get rid of him. Once and for all.

"It is no matter," he said, still concentrating on the ceiling. "Your son is in a good enough position already. Best friends with the supposed Boy-Who-Lived. No one will suspect him of collecting information. Very well. We shall have to find out about the boy via another method. I shall think about it. In the mean time, tell your son to gather as much information as possible."

"Yes, My Lord."

"That will be all."

"Of course, My Lord." The woman quickly headed for the door, not wanting to inconvenience her Lord any further.

Just as she reached the door, the Dark Lord called out, stopping her. "Zabini? Pass on congratulations to your son. He has greatly pleased the Dark Lord."

Zabini allowed herself to smile slightly. "Thank you My Lord."

Then she slipped out the open door and closed it softly behind her.

"Dimitrov," the Dark Lord hissed, and a tall, dark featured man stepped out of the shadows to kneel before Voldemort's chair.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"I want you to start studying Hogwarts. If I had need of entry to their before I have urgent need now, and those other buffoons are doing no job of it. I want you to study it from every angle, and _find a weak point._ Do you understand?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Dimitrov," Voldemort said warningly. "You are my best. Do not fail me. I would not like to have to punish you in any way that diminishes your value to me. But those are the only sort of punishments that work."

"Of course, my Lord."

"Go."

Dimitrov bowed low, and then headed out. There were light footsteps that one mightn't have believed could from such a largely built man, and then the door clicked shut.

Only after Dimitrov had left did the Dark Lord allow himself to fully feel his elation at receiving the news that the real Boy-Who-Lived had been found, and allow the joy to surge through him like a tsunami.

OoO

"Ayde, the breakfast table is meant for eating, not sleeping," Harry grinned, prodding Ayden none too gently with his fork and at the same time dropping a crust from his toast off the edge of the table for Rust.

"Mmno," Ayden mumbled in response shoving half-heartedly at the offending fork. "Too early…"

"Too early?" Sam asked, cheerful and bouncy as ever. "Ayde, it's eight thirty in the morning. That is not, by any stretch of the imagination, too early."

"Isso."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well mate, you better wake up soon. I don't think you'll do too well fending off dangerous beasts when you're half asleep. In case you'd forgotten, we have Care of Magical Creatures next. Here. Orange juice. That should wake you up a bit."

Harry turned back to Sam as Ayden made a show of attempting to drink from the glass with his chin still resting on the table and his eyes closed. "Now, what were you saying? About the prank?"

He, Ayden and Sam were sitting at the Gryffindor table, slightly away from everyone else. They had originally been sitting with Ron and the others, but once Harry decided to start planning their pranks for the war with the Weasley twins and Lee, the others had all moved away fairly quickly.

Hermione had moved away because she was a prefect if she didn't know what they were planning, she couldn't tell them off for it. The others all moved away because they felt that if they stuck around, they might end up being labelled as targets. And Seamus had also said he wanted to be surprised.

As it was, they might as well have stuck around, because they _were_ being labelled as targets. Along with the rest of the school too of course.

"Well," Sam said animatedly to Harry, "Ron was actually the one who gave me the idea. You know yesterday, when we were talking about animagus'? Do you remember what Ron said?"

"Yeah…" Harry agreed, a slow smile staring to spread over his face as he caught on to what Sam was aiming at. "You are brilliant Sam. How would we do it though?"

"Well, I know this spell that you put on food, and Padfoot _did_ tell us where the kitchens are…"

"Perfect," Ayden said, finally lifting his head from the table, a huge grin splitting his face. Either the juice had woken him up, or Sam's idea had stirred him into life.

Suddenly, at the same time, all three of them had the rest of the idea worked out, and they proceeded to talk quickly and interrupt each other in their haste to get it out in the open.

"One of us could distract the House Elves – "

"That won't be too hard."

"And the other two do the spell – "

"Rust, get out! That's my toast!"

"On the Pumpkin Juice! Pretty much everyone drinks that!"

"And on the water too, for those people who don't drink the juice."

"Oh fine, have it then. I don't want it after you've snuffled at it anyway."

"Dinner or lunch?"

"Lunch, cause then lessons'll be delayed."

"Ah, no! Not my bacon too! But there's no more! Rust – ! Ugh! Irritating animal."

"Leave my fox alone Ayden."

"How come he never steals _your_ food?"

"Cause I don't let him. Can we focus on the task at hand?"

"We'll do it too though – "

"Of course. Don't want everyone knowing it was us so easily."

"It won't be that hard to work out."

"True, but we'll all look the same – well… in a manner of speaking at least, so we'll be good for a while. They won't be able to tell who's who."

"So, lunch today then?" Ayden asked, a grin bigger than Australia lighting up his face. He had given up attempting to defend his breakfast from Rust, who was now quite happily sitting under the table munching on a slice of bacon and a piece of toast.

"Lunch today," Harry and Sam agreed, identical expressions of glee on their faces.

"Hey you three," Dean called from further down the table, "if you're finished plotting yet, we have to head to class. It's nearly nine."

Harry, Ayden and Sam laughed, getting up to join Dean, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, Ginny and Neville, all of whom were picking up their bags and getting ready to leave.

"Yep, all plotting has been completed," Harry replied with a smile. "The baby bird is fully feathered and ready to take off. …What?" He added, as they all looked at him oddly.

"You're weird. That's what," Ayden replied bluntly, before saying with a laugh, "The baby bird is fully feathered? Where do you pull this stuff from Harry?"

Harry shrugged nonchalantly. "What do you two have?" he asked Sam and Ginny.

"DADA," they replied simultaneously, before grinning at each other.

"I'm so looking forward to meeting Professor Tracks," Ginny said enthusiastically. "Everyone's said she's really good."

"Ooh, she is!" Hermione said, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. "We're gonna learn heaps this year, I just know it!"

"Yeah," Ginny agreed. "Plus, it'll be different having a female teacher for Defence. We've only ever had guys before. I wonder if she'll teach anything different."

"Well," Sam chirped, "we'll find out soon enough!" He stuck his arm out to the side. "May I escort you to class, My Lady?" he asked with a bow.

Ginny laughed, and slipped her arm lightly through Sam's. "That you may, good Sir," she replied, playing along.

"See you folks later then," Sam said briefly with a grin, before turning and starting to skip down the corridor, tugging a laughing Ginny along with him.

"That's not very gentlemanly," Harry and the others heard her say through her laughs.

"Meh," came the reply. "That's fine, cause 'gentlemanly' isn't even a word."

"It is so!"

The two of them disappeared Harry, Ayden and the others' sight, with Sam still skipping and Ginny still being tugged helplessly along, both of them laughing and arguing along the way.

Ayden turned to Harry. "Was my brother just skipping?" he asked blandly.

"Uh huh."

"I thought so."

"I can see what's happening," Harry started solemnly.

Ayden joined in. "And they don't have a clue!"

"Who?" Ron asked, the question perfectly timed.

Neither he nor Neville understood why Harry, Ayden, Hermione, Seamus and Dean all suddenly fell about laughing.

OoO

They were halfway down the hill heading towards Hagrid's cottage when Harry suddenly yelped and tripped over, hitting the ground with a thud and just missing Rust, who darted out of the way just in time.

"Hey," Ayden laughed, holding out a hand to help Harry to his feet, "try not to trip over your own feet too much. I mean, I know they're big and all but – Hey… are you alright?"

Harry had his eyes pressed tightly closed and his hand clamped over his forehead.

Ron, Hermione and the others all stopped and looked on in concern.

"Is it…?" Ayden asked, not needing to complete the question.

Harry shook his head, struggling to his feet, his eyes still closed. Ayden reached out and grasped Harry's upper arm, helping him onto his feet again.

"Hit my head," Harry replied shortly. "On that rock on the ground there. When I fell."

"Ah," Ayden replied, catching on. "You alright?"

"Will be in a minute," Harry said, grimacing as he swayed slightly.

"You should go to Madam Pomfrey if you hit your head Harry."

Harry peeked through his fingers to smile at Hermione. "Nah, it's alright," he said, taking a few steps to the right and sitting down heavily on a rock, Rust sitting dutifully next to him. "I'll be fine in a sec. I just need to sit down for a minute. You guys go down to class – I don't want to make you late. Tell Hagrid Ayden and I will be there soon."

Hermione and the others paused uncertainly for a moment longer, wanting to stay and make sure Harry was ok, before Ayden said, "It's ok – he'll be fine soon. He's got a hard head. He's so clumsy his head has _had_ to toughen up. He would've suffered sever brain damage before now if it hadn't."

"Thanks Ayde," Harry responded dryly. "Really guys, its ok. We'll meet you there, ok?"

"Well… if you're sure…" Hermione said, still hesitant. She turned and started shepherding the boys down the hill towards where they could now see a gathering of students on the edge of the forest, all of them looking over their shoulders and back at Harry more than once in concern.

"He knows it's not Jayme," Harry said as soon as the others were out of earshot.

"What?!" Ayden asked in alarm. "How do you know? How does _he_ know?"

"I don't know how he knows, but I felt a snippet of his emotions just then. He's pretty chuffed. He knows it's me he wants, and he knows I'm here. We're going to have to watch out from now on Ayde."

"Shit Harry. This isn't good."

"You're telling me."

"How long has he known for?"

"No clue. But I'd say he's known for a while. There was no surprise in what he was feeling. More like… I don't know how to put it… it sort of felt like he's been trying to find me for a while. That's why he's so pleased I've finally been located."

Ayden paused, studying Harry's face. "Are you scared?"

Harry started, surprised at the question. He paused thoughtfully before he answered. "A little, I suppose. Not as much as I probably should be. I mean – the most evil, sadistic wizard of the day wants me dead. I should be a more than 'a little' scared. But, I guess… I guess I knew he'd work it out in the end. I've sort of just been waiting for it to happen. I've gotten used to the fact."

Ayden said nothing; just continued to study Harry's face. After a moment, Harry continued.

"Actually… I'm sort of glad he knows. I've been waiting since he returned for him to find out. It was sort of inevitable. And now I know he knows, so I don't have to spend half my time looking over my shoulder wondering if I should be looking over my shoulder yet." Harry laughed lightly. "Now I know for sure I should be looking over my shoulder." He paused, frowning at Ayden. "Does this make sense?"

Ayden's lips twitched upwards in a half smile. "Yeah. Now you know you have to be on your guard, whereas before you weren't on guard, but you were always worrying and wondering if you should be."

"Exactly."

There was another pause as the two teens and the fox sat, lost in their own thoughts.

Ayden frowned. "How did you feel it at all? I mean… I thought you'd worked out defences against him."

"I had. That's probably why I never felt it when he found out. But I've been distracted the past few days. My defences have been down."

"Ah… well… if I were you, I'd make sure you keep them strong. If he knows it's you, and he works out he has a connection that allows him to get into your mind… he could do a lot of damage."

"I know."

There was another pause, before Ayden sighed. "Well," he said, standing up and dusting himself down, "we'd better be getting to class. I'm looking forward to this class. It should be good. I've heard that the teacher is rather fond of dangerous creatures, and likes naming them things like 'Fluffy'." Ayden was trying to cheer Harry up – to distract him from the fact that Voldemort was onto him.

He stretched a hand, which Harry grasped, and pulled his best friend up into a standing position.

"You alright to go to class?" he asked concernedly.

Harry smiled a faint smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. My scar's still stinging a bit, but nothing worse than that. We better go. We're already pretty late."

OoO

"Ah, good, yer both here," a large man with a very bushy beard and a huge dead cow over one shoulder said as Harry and Ayden arrived, walking past Jayme without a second glance and slipping through the other various students to join Hermione, Ron and the others. "We're goin' into the fores' today, so we were waitin' for ye. You're two of the new students, yeh?"

"Yes," Ayden said, glancing curiously at the cow. "I'm Ayden Daniels and this is Harry Potter. Sorry we're late Professor. We had a bit of drama on the way here."

"S'alright, s'fine," the teacher assured them cheerfully with a wave of his hand. "Ermione told me you'd probably be a little late. "'S nice to meet you. Now, we all set to go?"

"Are you alright Harry?" Hermione asked, concern in her voice as the teacher turned and headed into the forest, calling behind him for them to follow, and to stick together. Harry and Ayden noticed for the first time that most of the students had expressions of worry and caution on their faces.

"Yeah," Harry said with a smile. "I sat down for a little while. I'm fine now. By the way – what's with the dead cow? And how come you all look so worried? Surely the forest isn't that bad. I mean – it's only trees."

Ron gave a half nervous, half bitter laugh. "Only trees. Sure. Obviously no-one's told you about Hagrid?"

"We've only heard a little."

"Hagrid's idea of a cute and cuddly kitten is a chimera," Dean supplied grimly.

"You know," Ayden said, "chimera's get a pretty bad rap. They're not really that bad."

"Don't be an idiot Ayde," Harry said, laughing at the expressions on the others. "He's joking," he assured them.

"Ruin all my fun…"

"So," Seamus said, cutting ruthlessly across a sulking Ayden, "considering Hagrid's penchant for claiming ruthless beasts are actually only misunderstood, and his opinion that anything without the means to seriously damage your health are boring, we're all a little nervous as to what he's got planned for us today. The forbidden forest is forbidden for a reason."

Harry shrugged, not entirely convinced. "I'm sure he wouldn't be allowed to show us anything that could hurt us. Or, if he was allowed to show us, we wouldn't be able to get close enough to it to get caught. And I'm sure you're over exaggerating anyway."

Hermione gave him a look. "He had a dragon in first year, Harry. A dragon. He hatched it, and attempted to raise it."

Ayden and Harry shared a wide eyed, amazed glance, huge grins on their faces. "Wicked!" they said simultaneously.

Neville shook his head in exasperation. "You know… I have a feeling that you two and Hagrid will get along just fine."

OoO

Hagrid led the group of students into the forest for about fifteen minutes before they came to a large clearing.

"Alrigh'," he said quietly, as they entered the clearing and he set the carcass down on the ground. "Now, they should be 'ere soon. Look around the clearin' for 'em and wait a bit. They'll get 'ere in a sec – the smell o' meat attracts them ye see. Or… some o' ye will at least."

Harry, Ayden and the others shared a curious glance at this odd comment, then joined the rest of the class in staring around the clearing looking for… something.

A few minutes later, everyone's heads turned to look at a point on the left of the clearing – they had all heard a rustling noise. Then several people cried out at once.

"Aargh!" a Gryffindor girl who Harry, Ayden and Sam had yet to be properly introduced to screamed and pointed in shock.

"What is _that_!?" cried a Ravenclaw boy who looked utterly repulsed.

"That looks so cool!" Harry and Ayden cried together.

"Eep!" Neville said quietly, moving hastily backwards through the crowd.

"Ah," said Hagrid cheerfully, walking up to the large, black winged, skeletal looking horse and reaching out a hand in greeting. The horse paused on its way to the carcass and stuck its nose fondly into Hagrid's hand and allowed itself to be petted. "There ye are Swift. I thought you might be the first one 'ere." Another two horses came out of the trees.

"What is it?" Hermione whispered to Harry, Ayden and Neville. "I can't see anything. What are you looking at?"

"They're lookin' at a thestral 'Ermione," Hagrid answered with a smile, turning away and letting the horse like creature head once again towards the carcass.

"Oh!" Hermione said. "I never knew there was a heard of thestral at Hogwarts!"

Yep!" Hagrid replied, just as the horse reached down and tugged off a huge strip of flesh. Several people screamed and cried out in shock. It must have looked very odd. A large amount of meat separating, seemingly of its own accord, and then disappearing into thin air. Seamus and Ron looked slightly green.

"Oh, yes Mr Daniels?" Hagrid asked, looking at Ayden, who had his hand raised straight in the air.

"Feel free to call me 'Ayden,' Professor," Ayden said, lowering his hand, before continuing. "Can we pat them?"

Many people looked in shock at Ayden, mortified that anyone would want to go near whatever it was that was eating the raw flesh. Hagrid too looked surprised. Harry supposed that no one had ever volunteered to go near any of the creatures he had ever shown.

"Uh, sure," Hagrid said, looking slightly lost, before regaining his thoughts and saying enthusiastically, "Yeh, yeh sure ye can pat 'em! They're really friendly – here."

He walked forwards and whistled lowly. The thestrals (six of them now) all lifted their heads and looked questioningly at the three approaching humans.

Harry and Ayden strolled casually up to the thestrals, clearly at ease with animals, holding out their hands for investigation. After being given the thestrals' approval, Harry and Ayden both stepped forwards and started rubbing the head of a thestral each. Rust crept up cautiously and sniffed curiously at one of the thestral's hooves.

"Wow," Harry said, "they're really soft."

"Yeah," Ayden agreed, laughing as he ruffled the tuft of hair on his thestral's head and it snorted with pleasure. "They don't look like they'd be so silky, do they?"

Hagrid beamed hugely as he watched the two boys and his thestrals interacting. The fact that Harry and Ayden were showing such interest in what he was teaching them about encouraged him dramatically. He loved teaching, but sometimes it got a bit old when every one of his students wanted to flee, screaming, away from the subject of the lesson.

It was clear to Hagrid that Harry and Ayden were fond of and entirely comfortable with animals, and that in turn helped any animals they were around to be comfortable with them too.

_There aint enough of those sorts of people 'round nowadays_, Hagrid thought to himself. _Hopefully these two can help influence some of their friends to think the same way._

"Alright, well we better get back to the lesson," he said, beaming.

Not bothering to attempt to get everyone to look at him – all the students were staring Harry and Ayden and at the self-stripping carcass in fascinated revulsion – Hagrid started telling them about how he raised the thestrals from three up to a much larger number, so that now there was a large herd of them in the forest.

"Now," he said, forestalling the question he could guess was about to come out of a curious Hufflepuff's mouth, "as you've obviously noticed – only some of you can see the thestrals. Who can? Raise yer 'ands."

In addition to Neville, Harry, Ayden, the Ravenclaw boy and the Gryffindor girl, only three others – a Hufflepuff girl and two Slytherin boys – raised their hands.

"Yeh, I didn't think there'd be many of ye. I hoped there wouldn't be many of ye. Can anyone tell me why – yes Hermione?" he said with a small smile.

"Because the only people who can see thestrals are those who have seen someone pass away," she recited, word perfect.

Harry and Ayden stopped petting the thestrals and looked up, startled. The thestral Harry had been fussing over nudged him playfully, looking for more affection.

"Tha's righ' 'Ermione. Ten points to Gryffindor. The only people who can see thestrals are those tha' 'ave seen someone pass away. It's really awful actually. I'm sorry for all of you who can see them. I'd really rather you couldn'. Tha's what gives thestrals the bad name that they have. People see them as an omen, see? 'Cause of the whole death thing."

Hagrid continued talking, explaining more about the thestrals, but Harry and Ayden hardly heard him. Harry was recalling, and he knew Ayden was doing the same, all those horrible moments that he wished he could just forget.

The scenes flashed past his mind's eye, and he felt again – just as he had felt at the times – the horrible, gut wrenching feelings of loss, guilt, despair and failure.

The elderly woman who had been their friend for so long, but who had gotten too old; the car that, before it hit the telephone pole, had been full to the brim with a young, happy family; the burning orphanage he had rescued Anna from and all the other ones he hadn't been able to save; and finally, little Trista.

He could still see her, lying broken in his arms, trying to tell him something. Something that she hadn't been quite able to get out before her eyes had fluttered closed for the last time.

Little Trista, the littlest of their group. The one he, Ayden, Sam and Kirsten had seen as their baby sister.

Little Trista, who had been so happy, so loving, so bubbly.

So trusting.

So trusting it led to her death.

Harry's insides burned as he remembered the rage he had felt as he sought, but failed to find, the ones who had done this to their little Trista. And he felt now, just as strongly as he had then, the all consuming despair, and the endless, severe, gut wrenching guilt that dominated and nullified almost all other emotions.

Harry looked up from his thoughts as he felt a nudge on his arm.

The thestral was nosing him with its heavy nose, looking up at Harry with big, sad, solemn eyes. The thestral could sense what Harry was feeling, and somehow it seemed to know it was the reason he was feeling it. As the big eyes gazed at Harry, he had the feeling that the thestral was apologising. Apologising for reminding him.

Apologising for it all happening in the first place.

Harry looked away from the thestral, and started walking away, back towards the school. Ayden had left too. Harry could hear Hermione calling out in confused distress.

"Mate, are you alright?"

Ron was at his side, but Harry barely noticed him. He walked quickly, although as if in a trance, through his classmates, not even noticing Jayme make some form of scathing remark.

Ron fell behind before they reached the edge of the clearing, but Harry kept walking. He didn't know which way Ayden had gone, but that didn't matter for the moment; he wanted to be alone anyway, and knew that Ayden would be feeling the same way.

He walked nearly to the edge of the forest, then kept inside the tree line as he walked in the direction of the lake, Rust keeping to his heels the whole way.

From far behind him, he heard a loud, low whinny.

OoO

How long Harry sat and looked out over the still surface of the lake he did not know.

He had found a spot, which in any other circumstances might be nice – it was a large, flat rock that hung slightly over the surface of the lake, showing the wide expanse of water ahead in all its sparkling glory, and with a dense set of trees that provided a speckly kind of shade.

Harry sat with his back against a smooth tree trunk, his knees held tight to his chest, Rust curled over his feet.

He didn't even see the lake. His eyes did, but the image never reached his brain. His brain was too preoccupied and in too much turmoil to see something so calm and peaceful as a lake.

He was so caught up in hit thoughts that he didn't even see Ayden, in his animagus form, walk out of the trees, nose to the ground and sniffing, until he was nearly next to Harry.

"Hey," Ayden said quietly, transforming back from a wolf into his usual human self, and coming to sit on Harry's right.

"Hey," Harry replied, just as quiet, not shifting his gaze from the shining, shimmering lake surface.

"So," said Sam, coming out of the trees that Ayden had just emerged from. "I guess we aren't doing our prank today then?"

It was a forced attempt at bravado – a weak attempt to lighten the mood.

Sam gave up on it almost immediately.

"Harry," he said instead, squatting down next to Harry and taking a firm hold of his lower arm. "You know it wasn't your fault. It wasn't any of our fault. The only people there are to blame for what happened to Trista are the people who did it."

"I know," Harry replied. "But I still feel responsible. It was me who triggered the security alarm. I was the one who suggested we split up to loose the cops. I was the one who started the ball rolling. If I hadn't, Trista wouldn't have been grabbed. She wouldn't have died."

"Harry," Ayden said fiercely, "If it hadn't been you who'd 'started the ball rolling,' it would have been me, Sam, Kirsten or Trista. You only tripped the alarm because you happened to be in front. We hadn't seen that sort of system before; none of us would have spotted it. If any of the rest of us had been first instead of you, we would have tripped it just the same.

"And I was just opening my mouth to suggest splitting up when you said it. It was the right thing to do for the situation. It should have worked. But me and Kirsten thought she was with you, and you and Sam thought she was with us. It was a simple mistake – one that had happened countless times before. It should have worked out fine. But sometimes fate is against you."

Harry said nothing.

After a moment, Sam clapped him on the back. "Come on. We better head back. Everyone's fretting about you two, and I didn't really give them much assurance."

"Why?" Ayden asked curiously, standing up. "What happened?"

"Well, Hermione came rushing into the Common Room asking if either of you had been there, and I said you hadn't. Then she told me you'd run off in the middle of CoMC, and I asked her what had happened just before you left. She gave me the explanation as to why only some people can see thestrals, and I knew right away what had happened. Then I ran straight off to look for you without another word. She's probably had a couple of kittens by now."

Ayden chuckled slightly, and reached down a hand to Harry for the second time that day. "Harry?"

Harry looked up at him with sad eyes.

"She wouldn't want you to be upset about it, mate. You know how happy and cheerful she was."

Harry smiled quietly at the memory of a wild five year old, her curly brown hair blowing crazily in the wind as she danced around in the midst of a flock of fairies, her happy laughter echoing around the hills, her smile nearly out-shining the sun.

"Yeah," he said, reaching up and grasping Ayden's hand, hauling himself to his feet.

OoO

**An: Aww! I nearly made myself cry! **

**I only thought of Trista today – like, a hour ago – but already I'm so attached to her! I didn't mean to, but I've thought up her back history, and completely created her personality and everything, and I tell you what, if she were a real kid, everyone would love her to bits.**

**But she died a long time ago. I'm starting to feel really guilty now actually, for giving her such an awful end. And she was so young. T.T**

**Anyway – tell me what you think! Leave me a review – short, long, whatever you feel like. :)**

**I'm getting a job soon! As in – a full time, 9 to 5, fully paid job! I'm nearly an ADULT!!! Faints I mean – I know I'm 18 and all, but I still don't FEEL like an adult. I suppose I will once I start my job though:-S Wish me luck! I'm still going through all the interviews and everything, but there's this one job that I really REALLY want. :D**

**Now go review:D :D**

**Love Bundi.**


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